Texas eliminated potential distractions and the arrival of freshman star Aaliyah Chavez with a resounding win over Oklahoma. How Rori Harmon and Co. pulled it off.
Longhorn Nation circled this game in burnt orange ink months ago. It was around the time Lubbock Monterey guard Aaliyah Chavez announced that she would be playing her college ball north of the Red River instead of south of it.
The Oklahoma guard rolled into Moody Center on Sunday averaging nearly 19 points per game along with the growing reputation as a giant killer, as evidenced by her scoring 15 points during overtime of the Sooners’ win Jan. 22 over South Carolina.
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Chavez and the No. 10 Sooners never stood a chance.
As 10,155 roared their approval, the No. 4 Texas Longhorns took a 78-70 win that wasn’t as close as the final score would indicate. The Horns led wire-to-wire and the Sooners never got closer than seven points in the second half.
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It’s a real luxury to coach a battle-tested team that has played in hostile environments against All-American types and Texas coach Vic Schaefer is the first to mention it. Stalking a national championship over the last two-plus seasons of the Rori Harmon/Madison Booker era has — including the national semifinals loss to South Carolina last year — helped create an edge on this team.
When you add those experiences to the realization that it’s Harmon’s final season and that Texas was getting Oklahoma at home and trying to shut down the most dynamic freshman guard in the country, the challenge was almost cake. The result? As sweet as those cookies UT forward Justice Carlton is baking under her upstart J’s Rollin in Dough business.
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At least that’s how it seemed at times though the Sooners kept it interesting throughout.
The No. 4 team in the country playing on ABC with ESPN "College GameDay" in the building could have made for some distractions, but the Horns were focused on the task from the jump. They were single-minded of purpose, intense on both ends and while Schaefer still chafes at the 17 turnovers (which gives them 66 over the last four games), he was obviously pleased at how his team handled this latest assignment.
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“These kids are in the spotlight every day,” Schaefer said. “So I don’t know that it's too big for them. Booker has won four gold medals for her country. That’s a pretty big spotlight. Rori has been in these games her whole career, so I don't really get too worried about them. I might worry about some of the others, but I don't worry about them too much.”
Harmon, who took to guarding Chavez like a hungry piranha coming off a fast, still wore her game face in postgame. The Texas contingent was very kind in its praise of the young guard, but there was the sense they had been waiting to pounce for weeks. Having a national television audience added to the pomp and circumstance of it all, though the Horns were much more interested in the result than pageantry.
Rori Harmon wanted to guard OU's Aaliyah Chavez
Last March, Chavez, the No. 1-ranked high school player in the country, announced live on SportsCenter that she had chosen Oklahoma over UCLA and Texas.
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Spring ahead to Sunday and there was no doubt from the opening tip as to who had drawn the Chavez defensive assignment. Shoot, it wasn’t drawn because Harmon demanded it. Chavez missed 10 of her 13 field goal attempts and her first basket didn’t come until the 4-minute, 54-second mark of the second quarter. She's already a good player destined for greatness, but she found it difficult to score while wearing the straitjacket Harmon had strapped on her.
Better days lie ahead, but on this one she was up against a defense designed to stop her led by Harmon, a veteran on-ball menace who showed up with one thing in mind. Stops.
“I was locked in on the mission, my goal and my standard for tonight and I believe my team was too, so we came out and we were ready tonight,” Harmon said. “Yeah, there were a lot of distractions but they were good for the community. It's good for the Moody Center. It's good for our program, but obviously the No. 1 thing is to win basketball games.”
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Texas’ 38th straight home win raised its record to 21-2 overall and 6-2 in SEC play. Despite that road loss to South Carolina four games ago, they enter Thursday’s home showdown against No. 6 LSU, and longtime Longhorns nemesis Kim Mulkey, with a growing confidence. Other players are starting to step up, namely Carlton, who cooked up 16 points and eight rebounds. Emerging freshman guard Aaliyah Crump scored 10 of her 12 points in the second quarter.
“We want to protect our home-court advantage,” Booker said. “Just protect Moody. The last time we lost here was my freshman year (against) OU, so I don't think we wanted that to happen again. I think we wanted it to be a different outcome this time at home.”
Schaefer loves a challenge and the fact his team isn’t playing at peak efficiency yet is still winning bodes well if the Longhorns can figure things out between now and the NCAAs.
I’m not about to bet against them.
Category: General Sports
