'This Doesn't Define Our Season,' Texas Longhorns Reflect On SEC Championship Loss

The No. 1 Texas Longhorns have a lot to learn after losing in SEC Championship

March 9, 2025; Greenville, SC, USA;South Carolina Gamecocks forward Sania Feagin (20) handles the ball against Texas Longhorns forward Taylor Jones (44) during the first half at Bon Secours Wellness Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images / Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

GREENVILLE - "One quarter, one game" is the phrase that Texas Longhorns head coach Vic Schaefer repeated after his team lost to South Carolina in the SEC Championship. Texas scored just six points in the second quarter, which Schaefer said was the reason why they lost the game.

In the second quarter, the Longhorns shot just 3-12 while giving up 21 points.

"One of our coaches talked about controlling the controls, and they got nine points off of our turnovers and nine points off of offensive rebounds," Senior forward Taylor Jones said. "Being able to control what we can control, which is our effort on defense and controlling the ball and not turning over, I think those are two big lessons that we struggled with tonight."

March 9, 2025; Greenville, SC, USA; Texas Longhorns head coach Vic Schaefer signals to his team during the first half against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Bon Secours Wellness Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images / Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Texas turned the ball over 11 times in the first half and six of those came in the second quarter. Jones was held scoreless and the quarter and knows that moving on from this loss is important, but also emphasized that her team will learn from the pain of this one.

"(We're) leaning into the pain tonight of how this feels, and knowing that we still have a lot of season left ahead of us," Jones said. "But (we're) just learning and keeping our heads up and knowing what Coach Schaefer said, that this doesn't define our season, and hopefully we see them again."

Schaefer was named SEC Coach of the Year and said that he doesn't want people to place the blame on his players and that their effort was there.

"We had a bad second quarter," Schaefer said. "I think it's fair to say the game was lost in the second quarter for us. We just didn't shoot it well, we were three from 12, probably had a few too many turnovers that quarter. We gave them a 21 point quarter without scoring."

Schaefer doesn't think that this game will affect his team's seeding, but he wants his team to take the lessons they learned from today into the NCAA tournament.

Down the line, Texas will play many top teams like South Carolina, especially if they make a deep run in the NCAA tournament. Now, all the Longhorns can do is wait for the selection committe to decide who they will play next.

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