No. 3 Texas overcame a 12-point third-quarter deficit and earned a 65-58 win over No. 5 LSU on Sunday thanks to a dominant fourth quarter. The crowd at Moody Center was ecstatic as the Longhorns picked up their 21st straight win at home, 10th straight win overall and officially moved to the top of the SEC standings, a half-game up on No. 4 South Carolina.
This was the Longhorns’ fourth consecutive victory over a Top 25 opponent, and third straight against a Top 10 team. No other program had done this in the regular season since Rutgers in the 2004-05 season.
Just a week ago, Texas upset reigning national champion South Carolina. But to knock off LSU, the 2023 champions, it would take a gutty second-half effort.
Texas uses strong defense to overcome poor shooting
The Longhorns were off to a terrible offensive start on Sunday going 7 of 37 (18.9%) from the field in the first half, but more shots started falling after the break. Madison Booker, Taylor Jones and Rori Harmon combined for 38 points for Texas. Booker missed all 11 of her shot attempts in the first half, but was clutch at the foul line, going a perfect 10 of 10, including four straight in the game’s final minute.
However, the star of the show was the Longhorns’ defense, particularly in the fourth quarter. LSU’s 58 points were the second fewest for the Tigers this season, just two more than they scored in their loss to South Carolina in January.
“They play hard-nosed, aggressive defense,” said LSU coach Kim Mulkey after the game.
LSU led by 12 halfway through the third quarter, but the Tigers went almost three minutes without a field goal toward the end of the period. Texas then outscored LSU 21-9 in the fourth. In those 10 minutes, the Longhorns’ lockdown defense kept the Tigers to just 3 of 16 from the field while forcing six turnovers. Consistently contesting shots and overall gutsiness made the difference for Texas in the end.
“Your toughness was at a whole different level in the fourth quarter,” UT coach Vic Schaefer told his team in the huddle postgame. “That was a gutsy, gutsy win.”
LSU’s trio of Mikayla Williams, Flau’jae Johnson and Aneesah Morrow combined for 49 of LSU’s points, but they had to work hard for it, going 19 of 51 (37.2%) from the field. They had nine of LSU’s 19 turnovers, but they overwhelmingly handled the ball a lot as no other LSU player scored more than three points.
“You have no idea how hard that group is to guard [with Flaujae, Mikaylah, and Aneesah],” Schaefer said. “We did some different lineups, but our guys were so tough guarding them and defensively we never wavered.”
Despite the loss, Morrow still completed her 24th double-double of the season with 15 points and 20 rebounds.
“I had to put my five player on Morrow because she’s so damn good,” Schaefer said.
LSU dropped to 25-2 overall and 10-2 in the SEC. The Tigers are now 0-2 when facing a Top 5 opponent this season as their only other loss came to South Carolina. Meanwhile, Texas improved to 26-2 overall and 12-1 in conference play and are riding a 10-game winning streak.
