Three takeaways from Texas’ Elite Eight clash with Michigan at Dickies Arena
Top-seeded Texas women’s basketball left little question as to who the best team was Monday night, grabbing a 14-point lead off the tip to set the tone in a 77-41 win over No. 2 Michigan in the Elite Eight at Dickies Arena.
Texas (35-3) opened the game on a 20-6 run, led 34-21 at halftime and extended the lead to 40 in the fourth quarter against the Wolverines (28-7).
The Longhorns will make their second straight trip to the Final Four and will play fellow top seed UCLA (35-1) at 8:30 p.m. Friday in Phoenix.
Texas lost to South Carolina 74-57 in last year’s national semifinals.
Here are three takeaways from the win:
Longhorns’ defense dominates
During the regular season, no SEC team allowed fewer points per game than the Longhorns, and while their offense struggled at time times Monday — they didn’t make a 3 in the first half — their defense stood firm.
In the first half, the Longhorns allowed only 21% shooting from the field, and the Wolverines (7-for-33) only had one more made basket than Texas star junior forward Madison Booker (6-for-9).
Graduate student guard Rori Harmon said success on the defensive end of the floor opened up the rest of the Longhorns’ game.
“I think our defense just gets us going,” she said. “I think they had two points for quite some time in the first quarter, and I was talking to Madison on the bench before the game. Like way in pregame, in warmups. I was saying all the other offensive stuff, like, that stuff will come, but Michigan is a great team that knows how to score the ball, so we need to play some defense.”
Sophomore guard Olivia Olson led the Wolverines in scoring this season (19.2 points per game) but wasn’t able to find success against the Longhorns, scoring 11 points on 2-of-13 shooting.
Madison Booker powers Longhorns’ offense
Booker is one of college basketball’s most prolific midrange shooters. She ranks second all-time in Longhorns history in career NCAA Tournament points, and had her talents on full display in the first half.
Booker had 15 first-half points, scoring mainly off midrange pull-ups but also using catch-and-shoot jumpers and getting to the line against the Wolverines, who had no answer for the first Team All-SEC honoree.
In February, Texas head coach Vic Schaefer called his team soft after a loss to Vanderbilt, and Booker said that was a turning point for the team.
“I think me and my teammates say the same thing, that we never want to hear our head coach say that about the team he recruited because we’re so much better than that,” she said. “... We have a discussion with him, too. We say we have heart, and I think after that game, we kind of turned it around. That will never happen again. I think we will never play that bad or make sure we won’t play that bad, but yeah, that was just the mindset from us.”
Booker finished with 19 points, seven rebounds and two steals and was selected Most Outstanding Player of Fort Worth Regional 3.
Rori Harmon triple-double watch
Harmon stuffed the stat sheet in the team’s Sweet 16 win over Kentucky and did more of the same against Michigan.
Harmon was the biggest playmaker, leading the Longhorns with 13 assists. She talked about how she’s adjusted her game from someone who was taking more shots earlier her career.
“I just take what the game gives me,” she said. “You know, I have great players that I’m surrounded by thanks to our recruiting process and Coach Schaefer. I just take what the game gives me. There are going to be some games where I can go from 13 assists and take five shots, and there’s going to be some games that I take 12 to 15. It just really depends.
“You never know who is going to go off on our team. We have so many people that can do so many different things. You cover one person, here comes Jordan Lee or here comes Justice [Carlton]. Go down the line the whole list of teammates.”
Harmon showed that flexibility when Texas missed its first eight shots out of halftime. She hit a 3-pointer, the first of the game for the Longhorns, to get their offense back on track and help keep the team’s lead in double digits.
She finished with seven points and seven rebounds with the 13 assists.
This story was originally published March 30, 2026 at 8:06 PM.
