After six months of reliving a heartbreaking loss to the University of California, Los Angeles Bruins, Texas women’s basketball and senior forward Madison Booker got a rematch with the team that kept the Longhorns one game short of a national championship appearance.
They didn’t waste it.
After scoring only 44 points in the Final Four matchup a season ago, the Longhorns came out firing from all angles, dominating the Bruins 81–64 in an exhibition game at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park.
While the stadium was half-filled at best, the energy on the court felt like a game in late March. Midway through the third quarter, Booker got a favorable bounce on a fadeaway jumper, followed by a timeout. She bounced around for a moment, a smile stretching from ear to ear.
Booker finally redeemed herself from the 3-23 performance that has been haunting her and the Texas fanbase since last year’s season-ending loss.
“They’re a good team. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve got the dub, especially coming off a loss to UConn last week,” Booker said. “But no, this win for us just gives the whole team just a confidence booster.”
Booker finished with 21 points, leading the team, and did it efficiently, going 7-13 from the field and a perfect 2-2 from three. Overall, the Longhorns played a much more efficient game than the team seen in Connecticut, especially from three.
Texas only shot seven total threes in their exhibition against UConn, converting two of them. Today, against UCLA, they displayed that confidence will continue to grow day by day with this young team, going 9-19 from the arc, almost doubling the percentage from Monday.
“They’re a big physical team, so coming into the game, we think that’s their strength,” UCLA junior guard Elina Aarnisalo said. “And that’s what they’re looking for. So we were trying to focus on that, try to take away those pull-ups, those easier shots for them, which opened up some threes for them that they were hitting today.”
Junior guard Bryanna Preston saw a major leap in improvement. After only scoring three points against UConn on Monday, Preston scored 20 against UCLA on elite percentage, shooting 80% from three, giving Texas head coach Vic Schaefer some confidence in her being the team’s starting point guard going forward.
“Seeing the efficiency I can bring for my team this early, it builds a lot of confidence because it just means that I can keep getting better from here,” Preston said. “This is a good starting point. I know what works. I know what I have to work on.”
Texas gets one more chance to iron things out, with one final exhibition game against Eastern New Mexico on Thursday at the Moody Center.
After that, the Longhorns will open the regular season against Fairleigh Dickinson University at home on Nov. 4.
