BIG 12 No. 1 Texas Women’s Basketball defeats West Virginia 69-56

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Rori Harmon drives ball into the lane on the way to scoring 14 points and a win for Texas against the West Virginia Mountaineers in Big 12 play. (photo Texas Athletics)

Austin, Texas was in a deep freeze while Texas Women’s Basketball was in Morgantown, WV to continue their winning streak by defeating West Virginia 69-56.

Texas started the game scoring first and never allowed West Virginia to have the lead even once. Sonya Morris played all 40 minutes and led the Longhorns with 17 points, five rebounds, two assists, and two steals. Rori Harmon who also played all 40 minutes scored 14 points had six rebounds, six assists, and four steals. 

Taylor Jones shot double digits contributing 12 points, six rebounds in 24 minutes of play. Shaylee Gonzales also hit double digits with 11 points two of them three-pointers in 34 minutes of play.

Taylor Jones owns the rim against West Virginia scoring 12 points and pulling down six rebounds (photo Texas Athletics)
Shaylee Gonzales has perfect shooting form from three-point land. Gonzales hit two three's, scored 11 points total, and ripped six rebounds against West Virginia. (photo Texas Athletics)

The interesting point to make is both teams played about equal with one difference. Texas took more shots. From the field, Texas went 26-61 (43%) while WV went 21-50 (42%). Texas made one more three-pointer than WV, shot the same number (21) of free throws where Texas made two more than WV.

Both teams had 18 turnovers, however Texas did dominate on rebounds with 39 versus 25 for the Mountaineers. DeYona Gaston pulled down nine rebounds for Texas and Shaylee Gonzales, Rori Harmon, and Taylor Jones all secured six each.

Texas is now on the top of the BIG 12 Conference with an 8-2, overall Texas is 17-6 with their next game in Lawrence, KS to take on the JayHawks who they clipped last month 72-59.

Sonya Morris has a moment with Rori Harmon. Two leaders on Texas Women's Basketball. Morris scored 17 points in 40 min. of play. (photo Texas Athletics)
DeYona Gaston gets very close to the rim on a short jump shot on the way to 11 points against West Virginia. Makes you wonder if Gaston could dunk the ball. (photo Texas Athletics)

Last year this time, Texas hit a snag by losing back-to-back games to Baylor before embarking on a 14 game winning streak that concluded in the Elite 8 against Stanford.

Texas started their winning streak four games ago and now has eight Big 12 Conference games left. Texas Tech is the one team left on the schedule the Longhorns have not defeated this season. The good news is they play Texas Tech at the Moody Center in Austin Feb. 8, Wednesday at 7 p.m.

If there was one game Texas fans would want to fill the Moody Center, this would be the game. Texas only has four remaining home games left at the Moody Center until BIG 12 Conference Championship play begins.

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