GREENVILLE, S.C. − A coin flip won’t be necessary this time. The Texas women’s basketball team and South Carolina will settle this on the court.
Behind Madison Booker’s 25 points and a strong fourth quarter from Rori Harmon, Texas advanced to the SEC championship game with a 56-49 win over LSU at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on Saturday. With its second win over LSU this season, Texas improved its record to 31-2.
Texas also advances to play South Carolina at 2 p.m. CT on Sunday.
Texas and South Carolina split their series during the regular season with the Gamecocks recording a 67-50 win at home on Jan. 12 before Texas responded with a 66-62 win on the Moody Center court on Feb. 9. The two teams also split the SEC’s regular season championship.
Due to the SEC’s tiebreaker rules, a coin was flipped for tournament seeding. South Carolina won that coin toss and is the No. 1 seed in this bracket.
On Saturday, Texas and South Carolina set up an old-fashioned tiebreaker to determine SEC supremacy. In addition to UT’s seven-point win in the SEC semifinals, South Carolina rolled to a 93-75 win over Oklahoma.
Senior steps up in SEC semifinals
Through three quarters, Texas senior Rori Harmon had scored two points while missing all five of her attempts from the field. But in the fourth quarter, Harmon scored eight points. She did not miss a field goal or free throw for a Texas team that scored just 16 points in the entire quarter.
With Texas nursing a 50-46 lead in the final minute, Harmon also made a few plays that won’t end up in the stat sheet. Since LSU was not in the bonus and had fouls to give, Texas had to inbound the basketball four times in a seven-second span. With either Booker or Shay Holle inbounding, the Longhorns got the basketball to Harmon each time without a turnover.
“We don’t necessarily work on those things (in practice), but I’m glad that we were able to get the ball in and knock our free throws down,” Harmon said.
Harmon has stepped up before in a conference tournament. As a freshman, she scored 20 points in the Big 12 championship game and had a 30-point performance in the semifinals. She recorded an 11-point, 10-assist double double against Oklahoma State in the Big 12 semifinals the following year.
But because of a knee injury, Harmon sat as Texas won the Big 12 tournament last season. On Saturday, she expressed gratitude that she was again competing in the postseason.
“Unfortunately, I do think about how I did miss that tournament, but it just gives me more fuel,” Harmon said. “I think that fourth quarter with being able to knock down those shots, it’s just getting confidence from my teammates. Everything that happens on the court is because we truly believe in each other, and I’m just happy to be able to get to that next game.”
Harmon distributed just one assist on Saturday, but that helped her join Kamie Ethridge as the only Longhorns to record 700 assists in a career. One of three players to have their jersey number retired by the UT women’s basketball program, Ethridge recorded a school-record 776 assists from 1982-86.
Texas shuts down a shorthanded LSU offense
One day after scoring 101 points against Florida, LSU was held to its lowest point total since a 48-40 win over Texas Tech on Nov. 30, 2017. The Tigers missed 37 of their 56 shots and committed 15 turnovers.
The Tigers weren’t helped by the fact that all-conference guard Flau’Jae Johnson was missing the game with a shin injury. Star forward Aneesah Morrow then did not return to the game after she suffered what head coach Kim Mulkey described as a foot sprain early in the third quarter. Johnson and Morrow are LSU’s two leading scorers, and Morrow is the nation’s leading rebounder.
In her postgame press conference, Mulkey was quick to point out that Texas also struggled offensively. Texas has scored more than 56 points in all but one of its games this season, and the Longhorns shot 31.6% from the field with 18 turnovers against the Tigers.
Texas wins a game but could lose some sleep
Schaefer noted that Daylight Savings Time goes into effect on Sunday morning, so the Longhorns will lose an hour of sleep overnight. Because of that, Schaefer said he may skip his shootaround on Sunday.
“Ten years ago, I’d be toughen up. We got to get up, we’ve got to have shootaround, we’ve got to be in here (at) whatever time they give us. After 40 years, I’ve changed. My former players will say I’ve got soft, and that’s okay. I’m more concerned about them getting rest tonight, getting their recovery. I don’t know if we’ll take our shootaround or not tomorrow. And my kids know I’m big on shoot around.”
Added Schaefer: “I’ve really left it up to them, to be honest with you, and we’ll see how it goes. If you don’t have your physical body tomorrow and your frame and your well-being tomorrow, you’ve got no chance against South Carolina.”
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas vs LSU women’s basketball game score: Longhorns beat Tigers
