Texas fully recovered from their loss on the road to Kansas State over the weekend by handling Kansas at home at the Moody Center 91-56. However, Kansas uncovered a potential weakness that may end up hurting Texas down the stretch if not corrected.
The weakness is not Texas’ shooting. Texas played their hearts out hitting 59% (36-61) from the field and 64% from three-point range (7-11). Seriously impressive.
High scorer junior starting forward Aaliyah Moore was perfect from the field going 7-7, hitting the one three-pointer, and 2-4 from the free-throw line for 17 points. It was Moore’s birthday and she brought the gifts.
Freshman Madison Booker continued a scoring clinic with 15 points, six assists, and five rebounds. Starting center Khadija Faye contributed 14 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Shaylee Gonzales rounded out the fourth Texas player to score double digits with 12 points, five assists, and four rebounds.
A key metric that tells coach how the team is doing is points in the paint (PtsPaint). This means Texas was able to penetrate the defense enough to shoot high probablity shots closer to the rim. Texas score 36 points in the paint.
Defense, defense, defense. Texas has 16 fast break points, 18 second chance points, 30 points off of turnovers by Kansas. Seriously impressive night for Texas.
However…this could become problematic
As the heat gets turn up for the rest of the season, we will be asking coach Schaefer about this.
Four critical players had four personal fouls each. Senior starting forward Taylor Jones had two back-to-back fouls half way through the first quarter that put her on the bench early. Jones is/was Texas’ high scorer, but only put up five points in the game and played 12 minutes. Jones did contribute heavily with five rebounds. Jones was sub’d out in Q4 with 7:13 on the clock never to return to play. Jones will be instrumental if Texas wants to go far in March.
Booker, Holle, and Faye all had four personal fouls each. This is indicative of how aggressive Texas is on defense, however having four of your top players teetering on fouling out will be an issue down the home stretch during NCAA tournament time.
Texas travels to Stillwater, OK to take on Oklahoma State on Jan 20., Saturday at 2 p.m and it will be televised on Big 12 NOW/ESPN+
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Post Game Comments from coach Schaefer, Aaliyah Moore, Shay Holle, and Madison Booker.
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