TexasWBB season ends at NCAA Round Two
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Women' Basketball team concluded a fantastic 26-10 season at the hands of Louisville (73-51) in the NCAA Tournament Round Two at the Moody Center.
Louisville controlled the game from the starting tip-off and never allowed Texas an opportunity to take the lead, control the ball, or change the momentum. At the end of the first quarter the score was tied 16-16, then Louisville took the lead at the start of the second quarter and never gave it back.
Texas was off their game; Louisville played their best basketball. Texas shot 19-55 (35%) from the field hitting 1-10 (10%) from three-point range. Throughout the season, Texas averaged 72.9 points per game and kept their opponents to 57.4 points per game. This game was reversed for Texas.
Credit to Louisville as they played their best basketball. Texas had 13 turnovers that were converted into 14 points for the Cardinals. The battle on the boards was controlled by Louisville with 42 total rebounds to Texas’ 34, of which only 12 were offensive rebounds.
Texas averaged 15.5 assists per game this season, and had just five in this game.
DeYona Gaston had a team-high 12 points and five rebounds. Rori Harmon reached double digits with 10 points, nine rebounds, and three assists. Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda contributed 10 points and ripped down four rebounds.
In the postgame press conference, Vic Schaefer's opening statement started with, “Just first just want to congratulate those kids at Louisville. I thought they were really special today. Played really tough. Really competitive group, and they have gotten better as the season's wore on. I've seen that on film in the last two days. You know, the games even that they lost in the ACC were all down to the wire and just thought they were really, really good today. I thought they were tough and really had a competitive spirit about them. And so congratulations to them, and how hard and competitive that they played today.”
Rori Harmon walked slowly into the press conference and gingerly climbed the three steps onto the platform. The first question was, “Rori, how are you feeling?” Pulling the mic close and leaning in, Harmon responded, “I'm not feeling too good. But the season's over now so at least I get to recover. I've been battling with some lower leg issues the whole season, so me landing on it the way I did definitely hurt it a lot more. So I'll probably get it looked at sooner or later.”
While the loss is hard to take, Texas had another outstanding season going 26-10 overall, 15-3 at home in the Moody Center, won for the first time since 2004 the Big 12 Regular Season Championship.
Shaylee Gonzales was the high scorer this season with 458 points that lifted her past the 2,000 career point mark followed by DeYona Gaston with 437, Rori Harmon had 347 points on the season, Sonya Morris had 296 points while playing in 26 games due to a late season leg injury, and Taylor Jones scored 257 points this season to surpass the 1,000th point mark.
Rori Harmon led the team with 228 assists and 72 steals with Shaylee Gonzales grabbing second place with 56 steals. The block shots award goes to Taylor Jones with 62.
DeYona Gaston made the most two pointers sinking 183 plus 71 free throws.
Texas Women’s Basketball had an excellent season, packed the new Moody Center, and gave fans an awesome experience.
#HookEm
