Texas women produce dominating win over East Carolina in NCAAs first round
Perhaps it’s an indication of the expectations for the Texas women’s basketball team that a 79-40 walloping of East Carolina on Saturday in a first-round game in the NCAA Tournament’s Seattle Regional 4 at the Moody Center in Austin was more workmanlike than spectacular.
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Texas advances to play fifth-seeded Louisville, an 83-81 winner over 12th-seeded Drake on Saturday, in the second round on Monday night in Austin. Louisville beat the Longhorns 71-63 on Nov. 20 in the Battle for Atlantis in the Bahamas, but Texas did not have team leader Rori Harmon for that game.
There are certainly bigger fish to fry for the Longhorns over the next three weeks, and a win over the 13th-seeded champions of the American Athletic Conference (23-10) was just another speed bump to be dealt with on the road to Texas’ deep run into the Tournament.
Yes, the Longhorns were the Big 12 Conference regular-season co-champions and made it to the league tournament finals. Texas has reached the Elite Eight in both seasons under Schaefer – he also coached Mississippi State to berths in the Elite Eight the three seasons prior to coming to the 40 Acres – and anything less for his talented but shorthanded team would be a disappointment.
Shaylee Gonzales led the Longhorns (26-9) with 20 points while Taylor Jones added 16 points, 8 rebounds and six blocks, DeYona Gaston hit for 11 points and Shae Holle scored 10. Harmon dished out 12 assists for the Longhorns, one off her career high.
East Carolina had no answer for the Texas defense, shooting just 17.6 percent (10 of 56) from the floor and not reaching double digits in scoring over the final three quarters.
The Longhorns forged a 21-point advantage at the half and were up by 33 after a dominating third quarter. Texas then waltzed to the finish line, leading by as many as 41 in the fourth quarter as it emptied its bench.
Texas led for all but 14 seconds of the game and was up by as many as nine points in the first quarter before Gonzales’ free throw with 2 seconds left gave the Longhorns a 23-15 advantage at the end of the period.
A jumper by Harmon with 6:34 to play in the second period expanded the lead to 36-19 and UT poured it on from there. Harmon led a fast break for the half’s final points, passing to the trailing Gaston that granted the Longhorns a 45-24 lead at the break.
Gonzales paced Texas with 11 points in the half with Gaston adding 9 points and 6 rebounds. The Longhorns shot 51.7 percent from the floor, hit 3 of their 5 shots from distance, forged a 23-17 edge on the glass and had six blocks from six different players over the first 20 minutes of play.
The Texas defense was the difference in the first half as the Longhorns limited East Carolina to just 7 of 31 shooting (22.6 percent) and 0 for 3 from beyond the arc. The only thing that kept the Pirates within shouting distance was a 10-for-12 showing from the free throw line.
Danue McNeal had 11 points for East Carolina before halftime, with seven of those points coming from the charity stripe.
