Texas women’s basketball travels to OU Tuesday, hosts Baylor Friday

By Riley Zayas

AUSTIN, Texas — In the game of basketball, it often is not so much how you start, but rather, how you finish.

The Texas women’s basketball team overcame poor first-half shooting and a lack of confidence Saturday to outscore Oklahoma State, 15-2, in the final three minutes of action and pick up its second victory of the week, 61-56, improving to 5-2 in conference play, and more than that, setting up a thrilling home showdown Friday night with top-ranked Baylor.

The matchup against the Lady Bears is [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]always one that is circled on the Longhorns’ calendar, but it’s going to be important to not look too far ahead, as they have to go on the road to the Sooner state once again, playing Tuesday night at Oklahoma.

The matchup in Norman not only will warm up the Horns for Friday’s matchup, but also will prepare them for the height and post play they’ll see against Baylor. The Sooners have nine players who stand at least six feet tall, while Texas has just five. Not surprisingly, the Sooners have been really good when it comes to offensive rebounding, ranking fourth in the Big 12 in that stat category, with Texas and Baylor just ahead at No. 2 and No. 1, respectively. The Sooners average 13.2 offensive rebounds per game, compared to UT’s 14.2, setting up a storyline to watch in this one.

Oklahoma head coach Sherri Coale’s most trusted players, especially in marquee games, such as those against Connecticut, Houston and LSU, have been junior point guard Ana Llanusa and sophomore guard Madi Williams, who have been two of OU’s most prolific scorers this season, averaging 16.9 and 14.5 points per game, respectively. However, there’s a slight problem: Llanusa has been out for the past five games with back spasms.

The Longhorns can easily relate to the trouble of a veteran point guard being sidelined with injury: Texas stumbled out of the gates with early losses to USF, Arizona and Hawaii while Sug Sutton watched from the bench with a foot injury. Llanusa’s absence has affected the Sooners greatly over the past few games, as they have lost three straight, including a 92-74 loss Saturday to Kansas State. If she’s on the floor Tuesday, she’ll make open shots a lot harder to come by for the Longhorns, as her defense and leadership have been intangibles for Oklahoma throughout this season. If not, the 6-foot Williams will be the player to keep an eye on, having done the majority of the scoring recently with 86 points in the past five games, including back-to-back 20-point performances this past week.

The Horns can’t forget about guard Taylor Robertson, either. The Sooners’ leading scorer is a consistent threat from the wing, knocking down at least two treys in every game thus far. She has made 97 three-pointers so far this year — 22 more than anyone in the country (UAB’s Rachael Childress is second, with 75 made three-pointers). To put that in context, Robertson’s 97 threes are 28 more than the Longhorns’ leader in attempts — Celeste Taylor has put up 69 shots from long range. It’s also nearly five times UT’s leaders in made three-pointers: Taylor and Charlie Collier have connected on a team-high 20 shots form long range this year. Robertson has hit nearly as many three-pointers as the entire Texas team, which has 104.

Just above .500 with a 10-9 record, the Sooners were able to identify their weak points and face quality teams in non-conference play like Connecticut, Wichita State, Houston and LSU. Although they took losses in many of those games, a turning point for the squad came against No. 25 LSU, as they took down the Tigers in dominating fashion in the Big 12/SEC challenge with a 90-68 victory.

On a three game losing streak, the Sooners have fallen back to 3-4 in Big 12 play, with their last victory coming Jan. 15 against No. 17 West Virginia. Danger alert for the Horns: Oklahoma has been extremely good at home, with an 8-3 record in Norman and victories over both LSU and West Virginia there, each of which was ranked in the top 25 when playing OU.

Texas has won 33 of 58 meetings between the teams, including the last four.

The game will be televised on Fox Sports Oklahoma and over the radio on 105.3 the Bat.

The Horns already took down one No. 1-ranked team when they beat Stanford right before Christmas, but can they do it again? That will be determined when the Lady Bears of Baylor come to Austin for a Friday showdown that could play a huge factor in who wins the Big 12 regular-season title. Baylor, which is ranked No. 1 in the Coaches Poll and No. 2 in the Associated Press poll, has simply carried over the momentum built up from last year’s national championship victory, racing out to a 17-1 record heading into this week, in which they will face Iowa State at home before visiting Texas. Perhaps their biggest victory of the season so far came just a couple of weeks ago, when they stunned top-ranked UConn on the road with a 74-58 victory, which they followed with five straight conference wins. The Lady Bears are still perfect in Big 12 action with a 6-0 record.

A lot of that is due to the play of NaLyssa Smith, who came off the bench as a freshman in the national championship game against Notre Dame to score 14 points and pull down six rebounds. As a key component of head coach Kim Mulkey’s squad, Smith has embraced her new role as a starter this season, ranking second on the team in shooting percentage, points and rebounds. Along with Smith, the Texas post players will need to pay attention to Queen Egbo and Lauren Cox, two of the best post players in the country. Joyner Holmes and Charli Collier, who normally start for the Horns in the post, will have to play at a high level in order for Texas to stay in the ballgame.

This will be the matchup to keep an eye on in this marquee game, as these players have been vital to their team’s success on both ends of the floor. Egbo leads in the team in shooting percentage and rebounds; her 7.5 rebounds per game trail only the 8.1 boards per game hauled in by both Smith and Cox.

Cox also is a threat, although she has not played as much while recovering from a devastating knee injury in the national title game last season. In 10 games, Cox has made 44 percent of her shots, blocked a team-high 27 shots and is scoring 12.5 points per game (the third-highest average on the team), including a season-high 17 points in a recent victory over Texas Tech.

Baylor has won six straight against the Longhorns; UT’s last victory against the Lady Bears was Feb. 6, 2017, but the Longhorns lead the series overall 57-41.

This 6 p.m. game will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1 (FS1) and on the radio on 105.3 the Bat.
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