By Riley Zayas
AUSTIN, Texas — It was fitting that on the day former All-America Clarissa Davis’ No. 24 jersey was retired, senior Joyner Holmes, the last player to wear the number, scored six of Texas’ first 11 points, and finished as the Horns’ leading scorer with 17 points in the Longhorns’ 63-52 win over Oklahoma State in the final game of the regular season.
The victory makes Texas the No. 3 seed in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship. The Longhorns will face [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]sixth-seeded West Virginia at 7:30 p.m. Friday in a game that will be carried on FSN. The Longhorns and Mountaineers split their meetings in the regular season, each team winning on its home court.
“I’m really proud of this group for focusing on getting a win,” head coach Karen Aston said after the game. “It was important to our players, that’s what it has to be about at this point in the season.”
Even before tipoff, there was an obvious sense of determination in the eyes of seniors LaShann Higgs, Jada Underwood, Sug Sutton, Holmes and Sophie Taylor, UT’s five seniors who raced out of the tunnel for their final regular-season game in a Texas uniform.
“Today was about our seniors,” Aston said. “It’s one of those days that is hard when you are a senior, but I thought they did a great job of controlling their emotions until the game was over.”
While the ending turned out to be a positive one, the beginning was anything but pretty, or favorable for Texas, as the Longhorns’ inability to finish shots — UT shot just 29 percent from the floor in the opening quarter — and bad passes yielded a 16-14 Oklahoma State lead after one quarter.
If one play could have defined the entire first quarter, it was a Kassidy Deelap buzzer-beating layup for the Cowgirls. Starting slow was a problem all season for the Horns, and it showed no more than Sunday, as Texas struggled with ball security, with five turnovers in the first quarter alone.
Coming into the second quarter, though, it appeared the turnover bug was gone, but the cold shooting remained. Over the next 10 minutes, the Longhorns shot just 35 percent from the field, and a dismal 14.3 percent from three-point range in the first half. It was not the kind of first half Aston and the seniors were hoping to have. Not in front of their home fans. Maybe they were trying too hard, or the hype got to them early on, but they headed into halftime leading by just five, 32-27. It was not enough of a margin for the Horns to feel comfortable with. After all, Sutton had scored just two points on 1-of-6 shooting, guard Celeste Taylor had not made a shot and center Charli Collier already had two fouls.
The Longhorns emerged from the locker room with a new level of intensity, out-rebounding the Cowgirls, 10-7, in the third quarter. Cold shooting did not appear to be as problematic as it had in the first half — UT shot 46.7 percent in the third quarter after shooting 40 percent before the intermission. Most importantly, the Longhorns were not backing down on defense, an approach that led to more fouls, including two more on Collier, and also increased the amount of turnovers generated, a major positive in a low-scoring contest. By the end of the third, UT had forced 17 turnovers, which contributed to 18 points off turnovers in the game.
OSU hit three straight field goals to begin the fourth, and cut UT’s lead to just seven, at 51-44, with eight minutes to play. However, Texas was just as persistent, continuing to find ways to get the ball inside and put up a good shot. Sutton came alive in the last quarter, knocking down two threes and two free throws to help Texas put the game out of reach, and secure a win in her final game in Austin.
“I think right now we’re playing as a team,” Sutton said. “We’re in a really good place. We got to stay together and keep playing for each other and everything with work out for itself.”
With the crowd cheering, and 8.5 seconds left on the clock, Aston took a step onto the court and called her four seniors over. It was the final time they would check out in front of their home crowd. On this day, it finally came full circle, as they headed to the bench and the underclassmen took the floor to close out the victory. As the band played The Eyes of Texas following the ballgame, a feeling of relief and joy could be seen in the seniors’ eyes. They had done it. They had overcome a slow start, and went out on top.
“I think we just played for each other, most importantly, and we knew we had to come in and get a win,” Holmes said. “[We wanted to] just show a lot of pride for the name on the jersey and go out there and perform the best we could.”
The team that beat OSU Sunday did not resemble the one that had started out the year with a seven-point loss to South Florida in the opener in Tampa, Fla. No longer were there growing pains and lack of communication or confidence. This was a team that drove the ball to the lane, played tight defense and worked together through the highs and lows certain to come in such a close conference game on Sunday, and were rewarded for it.
“We’ve been through a lot of adversity, a whole lot of adversity,” Sutton said. “It’s crazy to see where we’re at right now. I never imagined being in this position and it just came so fast.”
Where does the season go from here? In the press conference following the game, Joyner Holmes pointed out that “they just need to take it one game at a time,” as the postseason begins this week.
In their final home game, the UT seniors combined for 31 points, 25 rebounds and six assists.
After the game, Aston put her seniors’ role into words.
“They really led the way today,” she said, “no doubt about it.”
[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] [habeabk] [/s2If]
Discover more from Horns Illustrated
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.