Texas falls in the Final Four to UCLA
With their 51-44 loss to the UCLA Bruins, the Texas Longhorns fell in the Final Four for the second straight season. The Bruins will now face the South Carolina Gamecocks in the national title game.
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Texas did not get off to as fast of a start in this game as they had in the rest of the tournament, with the Bruins having a 14-6 lead after the first quarter. Texas could not buy a basket, going 3-14 from the floor in the first 10 minutes.
The shooting struggles continued for the rest of the game, especially with Madison Booker, who uncharacteristically missed 16 straight shots. The Horns could only muster 17 first-half points. Luckily, their defense came to play, holding UCLA to 20 in the opening 20 minutes.
Texas found some life in Justice Carlton, who scored seven straight points, bringing Texas within a point in the second half. It wasn’t sustained, however, and the Horns continued to miss shot after shot, before UCLA went on a 7-0 run to push the lead to 38-28 with about nine to play.
It felt like Texas had some momentum late in the fourth quarter, but a block that went out of bounds off Booker and a tough bucket from UCLA’s Lauren Betts got the Texas deficit back to 10.
A run from Texas made it a three point game with less than a minute to go, before UCLA blocked Booker in transition and was able to hang on.
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Booker had a rough night, going 3-23 from the floor and 0-4 from three. Rori Harmon had eight points, five assists, and four steals in her final game in burnt orange. Texas shot 20-65 on the game, and could not find any sort of offensive rhythm. Betts had an excellent game for the Bruins, affecting nearly every shot inside.
UCLA held the Longhorns to their lowest scoring game of the season, by far, with their previous least being 64.
The game was a disappointing end to a great season for Texas, and to the careers of Harmon, Kyla Oldacre, Teya Sidberry, and Sarah Graves.
But, the Longhorns will compete for the national championship for years to come, as they should return a solid core of players, including Booker, Jordan Lee, and Aaliyah Crump, are bringing in a very good freshman class, and still have the excellent Vic Schaefer as head coach.
