Longhorns Win First Big 12 Women's Tournament Title Since 2003
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Texas Longhorns are Big 12 Women’s Tournament champions for the first time since 2003, defeating the Baylor Bears, 67-58, on Sunday.
No. 3-seeded Texas didn't just end that 19-year drought. The Longhorns also ended a three-game losing streak to No. 1 seed Baylor in the title game, going back to appearances in 2015, 2016 and 2018.
The emotion of the moment was best seen on the face of senior Joanne Allen-Taylor. As the buzzer sounded and her teammates came together in a heap at halfcourt, Allen-Taylor instead hit her knees and put her hands on the floor, clearly overcome by what had just happened.
That was four years of trying to break through that ceiling with her fellow seniors, Audrey Warren and Lauren Ebo. Quickly, Allen-Taylor's teammates engulfed her as she finally stood up and cried. She finished with 14 points, including a crucial layup in the fourth quarter kept the Longhorns in control.
Freshman guard Rori Harmon was the most outstanding player of the tournament. She finished with 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting, a night after putting up 30 points in an overtime win over Iowa State. Texas forward Lauren Ebo also made the All-Tournament team, with Iowa State's Ashley Joens, Oklahoma's Madi Williams and Baylor's NaLyssa Smith.
The Longhorns (26-6) earn the Big 12’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament and will find out their seeding at 7 p.m. Sunday. Texas will likely host first- and second-round games in Austin.
Texas is seeking to at least match last season’s trip to the Elite Eight in Vic Schaefer’s first year as head coach.
The Longhorns lost to Baylor (27-6) in their previous two meetings in the regular season. Those games happened in a three-game stretch due to the first meeting needing to be rescheduled for COVID-19 protocols at Baylor.
Schaefer made lineup adjustments after those back-to-back losses, and since then Texas has won 11 straight games. Plus, Texas ended Baylor's 12-game winning streak.
Texas set the tone from the outset, going physical inside and out and directly plenty of attention to Smith, the reigning Big 12 Player of the Year, who scored 30 points in one of those earlier meetings.
She hurt her leg with about four minutes to play in the second quarter, but to that point she hadn't been a factor. She did return, but Baylor's offense was never quite in sync without their focal point at full strength.
Baylor had the lead cut to 63-56 with less than a minute left and had the ball. But Smith and Ja’Mee Asberry both missed 3-pointers and Texas took back possession and Baylor had no choice but to send Texas to the line.
Texas grabbed a 16-14 lead after the first quarter and held a 39-28 lead at halftime. Harmon hit a prayer of a layup at the buzzer to give the Longhorns the double-digit lead. At that point, Texas looked firmly in control, and not just because of the lead.
Smith's injury came on a drive to the basket, which led to her being called for a charge. She was able to get off the floor, but was clearly favoring one of her legs, but it wasn't clear why. She didn't need help from a trainer to get off the floor, but she did stop several times trying to work with the leg.
She spent the rest of the second quarter on an exercise bike trying to loosen up. She did return to the floor in the second half, but did not play like her assertive self for the first several minutes. A fast-break layup late in the third quarter seemed to get her going, and she ended up scoring 16 of her team-high 21 points in the second half.
But the relentless Texas defense wouldn't let her get on track, injury or no injury.
Meanwhile, when forward DeYona Gaston got two early fouls, Schaefer had to turn to freshman forward Aaliyah Moore and she delivered her best performance of the season. The prized recruit, the Big 12 Preseason Freshman of the Year, had a career-high 12 points and played capable defense on Smith and Baylor center Queen Egbo.
Asberry and Jordan Lewis each added 13 points for the Bears, who will wait to find out their seeding in the NCAA Tournament under first-year coach Nicki Collen.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
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