BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Texas coach Vic Schaefer got the tense battle he expected between his defensive-minded Longhorns and Tennessee, the highest-scoring team in NCAA Division I women’s basketball this season.
In the end, the Longhorns edged the fellow Southeastern Conference program with the same approach they’ve had all season, relying on swarming the opposition and trusting in the offensive production of sophomore forward Madison Booker, the SEC player of the year.
Texas got 17 points from Booker and outlasted the Lady Volunteers to win 67-59 in an NCAA Sweet 16 matchup Saturday at Legacy Arena. Texas, the No. 1 seed in Region 3, improved to 34-3 and advanced to the Elite Eight while ending the fifth-seeded Lady Vols’ first season under coach Kim Caldwell at 24-10.
“We’ve been in these battles enough,” Schaefer said. “We know what it takes. When you’re tired or maybe in that moment of the last four or five minutes, that’s when you don’t rise to the occasion, you fall back on your fundamentals.”
The Longhorns (34-3) will face second-seeded TCU (34-3) on Monday night while seeking a spot at next weekend’s Final Four in Tampa, Florida. The transfer-stocked Horned Frogs, who are the Big 12 champions, beat third-seeded Notre Dame earlier Saturday, 71-62, to reach the first regional final in program history.
Jordan Lee added 13 points on 5-for-10 shooting (3-for-5 from 3-point range) for Texas, while Taylor Jones and Bryanna Preston scored 12 points apiece. Jones had team highs with eight rebounds and three blocks, and Preston’s stat line included four assists and three steals.
Booker shot 6-for-15 from the field and made all but one of her six free throws as the Longhorns went 10-for-12 at the foul line. She scored seven points in the fourth quarter, including four straight with the game tied at 54 with five minutes left. Tennessee pulled back within one on a jumper by Ruby Whitehorn, who led the Lady Vols with 16 points, before the Longhorns stretched their lead to eight.
That was the biggest advantage of the day for Texas, with Tennessee matching the Longhorns’ biggest strengths: defense, rebounding and post play. The Lady Vols outrebounded the Longhorns 39-36, had 15 second-chance points to five for Texas and got 36 points in the paint, just four fewer than Texas.
“I was proud of how hard we played,” said Caldwell, who brought new energy to the eight-time national championship program in her first season, during which she gave birth to a son. “A big point of emphasis was rebounding, and we did what we needed to there. They just did such a great job of rushing us into shots and forcing some turnovers down the stretch when we needed to get some shots off.”
Zee Spearman had 13 points and Samara Spencer added 12 for the Lady Vols, the only program to appear in every edition of the Division I women’s basketball tournament. This was their 43rd straight appearance, but they haven’t reached the Elite Eight since 2016 and haven’t made it to the Final Four since winning the 2008 tourney to repeat as champions.
Tennessee outscored Texas 17-13 in the second quarter with Booker sitting on the bench much of the period after picking up two early fouls. Still, the Longhorns held a 34-30 edge at halftime.
Despite what Schaefer said wasn’t his team’s best day, the Longhorns locked down on defense down the stretch against the potent offense of Tennessee, which entered averaging 87.5 points per game.
“We didn’t want it to be the last time we did it,” said Texas senior guard Rori Harmon, who finished with eight points. “We talked about accountability and leadership. … We were over here grabbing each other by our jerseys and telling (each other), ‘You can’t let this happen, you can’t let this happen.’ I think it was just collectively, we all just wanted it so bad.”
The Longhorns improved to 18-2 against SEC opponents this year, including an 80-76 win over Tennessee during the regular season. Caldwell missed that Jan. 23 game in Austin while recovering from giving birth.
“Our league is a monster,” Schaefer said. “I mean, it’s just a nightmare of a league. That’s the thing, y’all. You go to the NCAA tournament and you think, ‘Oh, thank goodness. We can see somebody else.’ No, I get to play two games, and then all of the sudden I’ve got to play Tennessee. Give me a break.
“But that’s our league. There are just so many great teams, they are all well-coached, and so many great players. I walk out and I look at Tennessee, and it’s like looking at a WNBA team. They’ve got size at guard, size at 5, size everywhere. Athleticism, quickness all over the floor. It ain’t much fun.”
Texas held Tennessee to nine points in the fourth, forced four turnovers over the final five minutes and held the Lady Vols to no makes on their final five shots. Tennessee was 5-for-26 on 3-pointers and 4-for-10 at the foul line, and the Lady Vols committed 18 turnovers while totaling eight assists and six steals.
Caldwell brought with her to Knoxville an up-tempo style of play that allowed her to be successful back home in West Virginia as the coach at her alma mater, Glenville State — which won the 2022 NCAA Division II title under her direction — and last season at Marshall as she made the jump to D-I and took the Thundering Herd to March Madness.
Her time at Tennessee has already put her mark in March Madness above .500, thanks to the Lady Vols’ wins against 12th-seeded South Florida and fourth-seeded Ohio State last weekend in Columbus as they bounced back from losing three of four games — two to end the regular season and two at the SEC tournament.
And now everyone within the program — and outside of it — knows what to expect with Caldwell in charge.
“This team has laid the foundation, and that was important and selfless, and we would have loved to have gotten one more win, we would’ve loved to go to the Elite Eight, but we didn’t,” Caldwell said. “We have a good class coming in. We have a few pieces to fill, and then it will just hopefully be smoother sailing in the preseason trying to teach everything next time around.”