Instant reaction: Move over, Madison Booker, you've now got help at Texas | Bohls
Texas showed it’s no one-woman team.
Or maybe it is, come to think of it.
Because of a whole lot of women.
For awhile it was Shaylee Gonzales running the show and drilling three 3-pointers among her 15 points, many of them early to set the tone. Then it was Shay Holle, normally Texas' lock-down defender, who also chipped in two treys and scored 12 points. And when she wasn’t on the floor scrambling for loose balls, do-it-all forward Aaliyah Moore hogged the show with 14 points, nine rebounds and even five assists.
Oh yeah, Madison Booker played OK, too.
On this night, Texas didn't have to rely on their star freshman
It’s more than ironic that Booker, the freshman Big 12 co-player of the year, was dogged by four trouble and some rare ball-handling and passing mistakes shortcomings with seven turnovers. And while she was soldered to the bench for all but seven minutes of the first half, head coach Vic Schaefer was forced to look elsewhere for someone to take the lead.
Schaefer had a whole cast of individuals who took turns carrying the team and rode that versatility and depth into the Elite Eight for the third time in four years. Texas produced a defensive masterpiece by suffocating the best 3-point team in the nation and holding Gonzaga to its season-low points in a 69-47 rout to put the No. 1 seed one step away from its first Final Four since 2003. The Longhorns will play No. 3 seed North Carolina State, which ousted 2 seed Stanford on Friday.
Aalyiah Moore: 'It's Texas fight' ... and she was right
Even with Booker having an off night and center Taylor Jones held out as a precaution after hitting her head in a fall against Alabama in the second-round game, the Longhorns overwhelmed the Zags. The West Coast Conference champions who averaged 9.5 treys a game and hit 12 in their last win over Utah managed just four bombs in 22 attempts for 18% accuracy.
“It’s Texas fight,” Moore told ESPN immediately after the game. “I knew we could do it. It’s all due to the Secretary of Defense, Mr. Victor Schaefer.”
And a one-woman team, never mind which woman.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas women don't miss a beat, advance to the Elite Eight
