No. 3 ranked Texas Head Coach Vic Shaefer celebrated his 63rd birthday on Saturday night with a 25 point victory over BYU.
The final score was 71-46. BYU falls to 1-16 in the Coach Whiting era when scoring less than 60 points in a game and 1-10 vs ranked opponents.
The Cougars were only down seven at half, but Texas exploded for a 23 point third quarter.
Lauren Gustin was the only BYU player to score in the quarter with 10 points. She finished the night with 20.
Kailey Woolston pitched in 13 and the two of them accounted for 71% of BYU's points on the night. Outside of Gustin and Woolston, 13 points were scored by BYU which isn't great against the no. 3 team in the country.
The Longhorns were led by star freshman Madison Booker who finished the night with 20 points.
'You take Madison Booker off our team right now, you have to ask yourself: are we where we are today? I don't think we are.' Coach Schaefer said postgame.
It was also senior night for the Longhorns. Shaylee Gonzales (grad transfer from BYU) & Khadija Faye were both honored.
Gonzales is 6th in active career scoring leaders with over 2,300 career points. She transferred to Texas in the summer of 2022 after averaging 17.7ppg in a BYU uniform over the course of 3 seasons.
'What are the odds?...Just a lot of emotions...we were really looking forward to this win and I'm glad we got it.' Gonzales commented postgame in regards to playing her former school for senior night.
The Longhorns bested the Cougars at the free throw line with 17 makes compared to BYU's eight. The Cougars also turned the ball over 22 times.
In Big 12 play, the Cougars turn the ball over 15.4 times per game and have given up 17.6 points off turnovers. Coincidentally, that's exactly how many points Texas scored (17) Saturday night off of BYU's 22 turnovers.
Texas also dominated the paint with 40 of their 71 points coming from there. BYU's bench was outscored as well 17-5. Additionally, Texas had 21 second chance points.
Amari Whiting, who is the third leading scorer on this team, shot 1-10 Saturday night. She's in a bit of a slump right now with an average of 25% shooting from the field over the last five games.
Up next for the Cougars is the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City beginning on March 7th, however the Cougars will play on the 8th. The bracket is set and here it is.
The Cougars will face the Jayhawks for the third time this season. They are 0-2 against Kansas with the most recent game at home on February 17th where they lost 70-62.
The Cougars are 1-4 over the last 5 and the Jayhawks are 4-1.
Ironically, if the Cougars beat Kansas, they'll go right back to playing Texas in a quarterfinals matchup.
Friday's game will be at 4:30PM on ESPN+.