(This story was updated to correct a misspelling/typo.)
After forcing overtime with a frantic fourth-quarter finish, the Texas women’s basketball team was unable to keep up with Notre Dame in the overtime session of an 80-70 loss at the Purcell Pavilion.
The SEC/ACC Challenge loss was the first of the season for Texas, which was ranked third in the USA Today Sports Coaches Poll this week. Texas is now 7-1 with a trip to James Madison scheduled for Sunday.
No. 10 Notre Dame (6-2) snapped a two-game losing streak with its 10-point win.
After West Virginia’s JJ Quinerly and Jordan Harrison scored 49 points against Texas this past Sunday, there was a question as to how the Longhorns would handle the tandem of Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles on Thursday. Texas didn’t provide many satisfactory answers in South Bend as Hidalgo scored 19 of her 30 points in the first half and Miles contributed 18 points and six assists.
Notre Dame senior guard Sonia Citron added 18 points, seven rebounds and seven steals.
Notre Dame led by as many as nine points in the second half, but Texas rallied to take two fourth-quarter leads. The final 10 seconds of regulation featured a wild sequence in which UT senior guard Rori Harmon tied the game with a jumper over two Notre Dame defenders, Miles put the Fighting Irish back up by two points with a drive to the hoop and Harmon then drew a questionable foul and forced a 68-68 tie and overtime with two free throws.
Texas struck first in overtime on a basket from center Kyla Oldacre, but that would be the team’s final score of the night as UT missed the next 10 shots it took. Notre Dame, meanwhile, had four different players score in the overtime period.
Texas was led by Madison Booker’s 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Shay Holle scored 14 points and knocked down four 3-pointers, but UT coach Vic Schaefer benched the senior guard in favor of Laila Phelia for much of the fourth quarter and overtime.
UT committed a season-high 23 turnovers. Harmon was also limited to six points over her 44 minutes.
“I thought our kids really played with a lot of heart tonight,” Schaefer said during his postgame press conference. “We didn’t play well. We had 23 turnovers. I think therein lies the crux to the loss is we had 23 turnovers against a 2-3 zone. There’s no way to sugarcoat that.”
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas women’s basketball suffers first loss against Notre Dame
