Texas Finds Its Defense, Squashes Cincinnati

A different University of Texas Longhorns team stepped on to the floor at the Moody Center to take on the University of Cincinnati Bearcats in women’s basketball.  Gone was the team that lacked juice, energy, and fight.  In its place was a scrappy, defensive minded unit that shut down the Bearcats, winning 67-to-50. 

The win comes on the heels of an embarrassing loss to Oklahoma where Texas gave up 91 points. 

“As bad as Wednesday night was defensively, I though they responded really well today and that show some character,” said Texas head coach Vic Schaefer.  “I thought our kids were tough, y’all, which is something we addressed the last couple days.” 

The defensive solution that Schaefer brought to the floor came as a surprise to nearly everybody in the arena: a zone defense.  The uncharacteristic shift to a zone defense came as a result of Texas’ missing three starting players: Rori Harmon (ACL), DeYona Gaston (ankle) and Madison Booker (hamstring)

“I hope ya’ll know that I’m almost allergic to zone, but man, our kids were so special today,” said Schaefer.   “It (playing zone defense) is like poison.  But I think my kids were pretty fired up about it.  Mainly because of our depth issues, and we felt like we could guard them a little bit better.” 

The cornerstone of Texas’ offensive what shooting guard Shaylee Gonzales, who filled in at point guard. Gonzales put-up 13 points, pulled-down six rebound, and dished-out three assist in 39 minutes on the court. 

“To me, Shaylee had a presence tonight on the floor and it permeated through my team,” said Schaefer. “Today might not have been a bigger day for her because of the limitation that we had and how she handled it. I think we played the way we played because it all started with her.”   

Texas’ Aaliyah Moore lead all players with 16 points, and added seven rebounds.  Taylor Jones added 13 points, nine rebound and seven blocked shots in the effort. 

Reagan Jackson and A’riel Jackson each tallied 10 points for the Bearcats. 

The Longhorns became the first team to out-rebound the Bearcats in conference play with a total of 46 to 32 and outscored them in second-chance points 15-6.      

Aaliyah Moore reached double digits in points for the fifth game in a row and led the team with 16 points and seven rebounds.

Shaylee Gonzales reached 500 career assists tonight, scored 13 points on 50 percent shooting from the field, and grabbed six boards. Gonzales played 39 minutes in the game.