Throughout this season, Texas women's basketball coach Vic Schaefer has consistently asked fans of the sport and burnt-orange believers to give his team a chance.

Come see Texas play once and Schaefer believes you'll be hooked. Watch the way his players play and Schaefer insists you'll have new role models for your kids.

"I'll make your life miserable because now you're going to plan your life around women's basketball at Texas," Schaefer said last month. "And it won't be miserable. It'd be fun for you. You'll just plan your vacations (around) the Big 12 Tournament, SEC Tournament in the future and NCAA Tournament. That's what our fans do."

On Saturday, Texas got that chance. With Oklahoma State in town for senior day, the Longhorns' regular-season finale and one of the last games to ever be played at the Erwin Center, the home team earned a 65-50 win in front of an announced crowd of 12,506.

To some, a crowd exceeding 12,000 fans may not seem like a big deal. South Carolina averages 12,714 at home. There were nearly 14,000 people at the Baylor-Iowa State game in Ames last Monday.

For various reasons, the thought of a crowd that big at Texas had recently become unfathomable. Since the start of the 2017-18 season, UT had drawn 7,000 fans just four times. One of those was against UConn. The other three were "40 Acres Field Trip" matinees with thousands of elementary school kids in attendance.

"I don't think I've ever actually seen 10,000 people at one time," senior guard Audrey Warren, who was playing home games in an empty arena full of cardboard cutouts of fans last year because of pandemic restrictions, said on Friday.

More: No ifs, ands or butts: Too many empty seats at home is frustrating Texas' Vic Schaefer

In the lead-up to a home game against TCU on Feb. 26, Schaefer expressed his frustrations about UT's attendance numbers in a lengthy rant. Two of his players later suggested that they were having more fun at road games. Texas went on to draw its third-best crowd of the season against TCU, but it still went into the weekend averaging only 2,757 fans. That's No. 36 nationally.

To entice more people to come out to the Erwin Center, Schaefer announced that he'd donate $10,000 to the Neighborhood Longhorns Program. Before he wrote that check, though, he needed 10,000 fans to show up.

This was not the first time that Schaefer tried this proposition. While he was coaching at Mississippi State during the 2017-18 season, Schaefer said he'd donate $10,000 to a local Boys and Girls Club if the Bulldogs drew a program-record 110,000 fans for the entire season.

"I've always been a believer," Schaefer said.

At Mississippi State, additional donors got involved and Schaefer's challenge raised more than $50,000. Four years later, he was once again assisted by others.

Soon after Schaefer made his pledge, Michael Huff got involved. Huff, the former Longhorns football star who still works with Texas football as an assistant director of player development, promised that he'd match Schaefer's pledge if the game drew 10,000 fans.

"I saw it as a great opportunity to support our team and help make the day really special for the seniors, while also giving back to an important program like Neighborhood Longhorns," Huff said in a statement. "It was an absolute win-win, so I was all in from the start."

After Huff got the ball rolling, others ranging from former Texas President Bill Cunningham to local car dealers to the operators of the Vince Young Steakhouse pitched in. The Silver Spurs pledged $35,500.

"(Schaefer) is kind of the man that makes things happen," UT senior Joanne Allen-Taylor said. "I was excited when I heard he wanted to do this. When Coach says something, nine times out of 10, it's going to happen."

"Only nine," Schaefer retorted.

More: Looking back at the top five Texas women’s basketball games in Erwin Center history

On Saturday, Texas fans made Schaefer, Huff and others pay up. The actual attendance was likely smaller than the number of tickets sold — there were swaths of empty seats in the lower bowl — but the program did have fans sitting in the upper decks for the first time this year.

After the game, an oversized check for $120,500 was presented to the Neighborhood Longhorns Program. Schaefer later tweeted that additional donations had since come in.

The Neighborhood Longhorns Program was established in 1991. On its website, it describes itself as "an incentive-based learning program, which provides educationally disadvantaged youth with the resources to build a strong academic future."

"We are overwhelmed with gratitude for (the Texas basketball team and Schaefer), the very generous donors and, of course, all the fans who showed up today," the program tweeted on Saturday.

More: Erwin Center, known for its size, showcased Texas basketball in a way few venues could

The size of Saturday's crowd will go into the record books as the eighth-largest in program history. But are these attendance numbers sustainable?

Texas pays Schaefer a sizable salary, but it still isn't realistic to expect a repeat of that $10,000 promise for all of UT's future home games. On Saturday, Texas also was offering discounted tickets for $1. That price will go up at the Moody Center next season.

If Texas hosts NCAA Tournament games later this month, Schaefer noted that, "You're going to have to pay NCAA Tournament money. That's just the way it is."

Schaefer was quick to add that even though the prices may change, the on-court product won't. Warren added that she thought Texas, which is the No. 9 team in the country, had sufficiently sold that product against Oklahoma State.

"I think the last few games we've had, really, have showed fans what we can do," Warren said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas women's basketball draws a crowd during fundraising effort