Texas women’s basketball is hitting its stride

Vic Schaefer’s Texas Longhorns are atop the Big 12 standings in advance of a rematch with Texas Tech.

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The other full-time tenant in the gleaming new Moody Center, the 20th-ranked Texas women’s basketball team has been making waves this season and is first in the Big 12 two games into the second half of the conference’s round robin gauntlet.

It should be no surprise that the Longhorns have been successful this season – it’s just taken a little while for everything to come together.

Texas (18-6, 9-2 in Big 12 play) started the season ranked No. 3 in the nation but endured an uneven start in which it dropped three of its first four games, including contests at fifth-ranked UConn and on a neutral court against No. 6 Louisville. 

Since that opening stretch, the Longhorns have captured 17 of their past 20, including victories over four ranked teams and their first win against rival Baylor in Waco since in almost six seasons.

“We continue to try to work to get better, and I think we are getting better,” Texas coach Vic Schaefer said. “It’s a slow process. We are getting healthy and that helps us with our depth. Our execution is getting better.”

Texas heads into Wednesday’s home rematch against Texas Tech riding a streak of five straight wins, the most recent a come-from-behind 68-65 victory at Kansas on Saturday.

DeYona Gaston racked up a career-high 24 points, eight of them in the final quarter when Texas outscored Kansas 20-12. Sonya Morris added 13 points and Khadija Faye grabbed 10 rebounds for the Longhorns in the win.

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Texas forced the Jayhawks into 21 turnovers that led to 15 points in Saturday’s victory, a key contributing factor in a game in which the Longhorns were outshot 50 percent to 42 percent, outscored in the paint 44-26 and outrebounded 37-33.

“This team has shown what it’s capable of but we are still searching for consistency,” Schaefer said. “We’ve been up and down, we’ve been in and out of the poll and we’ve lost to teams we shouldn’t have. I still say this – you win with your guard play, and we need to get all our guards playing well.”

The win over Kansas on Saturday followed another on the road at West Virginia on Wednesday, allowing the Longhorns to respond on the court to their coach’s call for toughness, both mentally and physically, in road games.

“Coach has been preaching about toughness,” Morris said Monday. “We’ve had a lot of adversity, not even just in the Kansas game, but also the past week for us as a team. Just battling through all the ups and downs that we did. We kept our heads and kept our emotions in check. We came in knowing what we have to do and we finally did.”

The Red Raiders were the last team to beat Texas in a wild 68-64 decision in Lubbock on Jan. 18. Yes, losing to Texas Tech will be a bit of a rallying cry for the Longhorns on Wednesday, but the players – and their coach – are looking more at the big picture rather than a single game.

“It kind of puts extra motivation and focus for us,” Morris explained. “We don’t take any team lightly but especially a team that we already lost to. So I think it just puts extra focus on us.”

Schaefer’s teams usually get stronger as the season progresses but he said Monday that he’s not comfortable with where his team is, even with its current winning streak.

“I’m encouraged, I will say that,” Schaefer said. “I think one thing I’ve learned about this team is I just can’t get comfortable with them. I don’t get comfortable with anything to be honest with you. I don’t take anything for granted. I’m always coaching against the ghosts. We’ve managed to win five in a row but you know we played some other teams pretty well early and then we stubbed our toe and then we get two wins and we just lose another one,”

“This is a great group of kids and I’ve really enjoyed being around them,” Schaefer added. “They’re a lot of fun. But when it comes to basketball, I think the consistency piece is what scares me so we’re trying to attain and achieve that day in, day out night in, night out.”