Longhorns Beat Texas Tech To Snap Three-Game Losing Streak
The Texas Longhorns snapped their three-game losing streak Wednesday night, outlasting the Texas Tech Lady Raiders, 61-56, at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock.
The No. 16 Longhorns (16-6, 6-5 in Big 12) built a nine-point lead with 3:15 left in the game, but the Lady Raiders rallied to keep things tight until the final seconds. With six seconds left, it was Texas forward Lauren Ebo — a 59 percent foul shooter — who drained two free throws to give the Longhorns the final margin of victory.
Texas — which had lost to No. 12 Oklahoma and in back-to-back games with No. 10 Baylor — now carries a bit of momentum into its rematch with the Sooners on Saturday in Austin.
The victory also came after Texas head coach Vic Schaefer had some pointed criticism for his team after that second loss to Baylor.
For the rematch with Tech (9-13, 2-9), a team the Longhorns lost to in Austin last month, Schaefer made a couple of adjustments. He started Shay Holle as the third guard, a position that has rotated between Audrey Warren and Aliyah Matharu. It was Holle’s first career start and she finished with four points.
Schaefer also moved DeYona Gaston back into the starting five at forward in place of freshman Aaliyah Moore, who started against Baylor. Gaston finished with four points and three rebounds.
In the end, it was the Texas seniors that led the way. Joanne Allen-Taylor had 14 points, and she sparked the Longhorns into control of the game with a 3-pointer with six minutes left, giving Texas a 47-43 lead. Shortly after, Matharu connected on a 3-pointer — her only points of the game — to push the Texas lead to 50-43.
After Texas Tech’s Vivian Gray answered Texas with a basket, Ebo and forward Latasha Lattimore made back-to-back baskets for Texas to give the Longhorns that nine-point lead. At the time, Texas seemed to be in control.
Tech had other ideas. Bryn Gerlich hit a pair of free throws for Tech, followed by a layup by Tatum Veitenheimer, to trim the Texas lead back to five points. After Allen-Taylor connected on a long two, Gerlich scored on a floater and then drained a 3-pointer to cut the Texas lead to 56-54 with 1:19 left.
Ebo backed down a Tech defender for a turnaround layup on the next possession, and Gray answered with her own turnaround to keep it a two-point game with 52 seconds left.
Playing to force a stop, Tech actually got Texas guard Rori Harmon to miss a mid-range jumper. But, Texas guard Audrey Warren — who had 12 points — batted the ball away from Gray under the basket and into Harmon’s hands with 18.6 seconds left. From there, with just two team fouls, Tech had to foul three times to send Harmon to the line with 12.5 seconds left.
Harmon missed the first free throw, but made the second, to push Texas’ lead to 59-56. Tech called its final time out to advance the ball to midcourt. Tech got the ball to Lexy Hightower — the leading active 3-point shooter in Division I, II or III — on the baseline but she missed and Ebo rebounded, drawing the foul.
Gray scored 20 points to lead Tech, while Gerlich added 11 points.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
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