Harmon, Booker have huge nights to lead No. 10 Texas past No. 11 UConn 80-68

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The No. 10 Texas Longhorns beat mighty Connecticut 80-68 and remained undefeated behind huge nights from Rori Harmon and Madison Booker on Sunday at Moody Center.

Harmon finished with a double-double, 27 points and 13 assists, while the freshman Booker poured in 20 points to help the Longhorns over 11th-ranked UConn. The Huskies were led by Aaliyah Edwards with 22 points on 9 of 11 shooting. Paige Bueckers, an All-American returning from a knee injury that kept her out all last year, had 13 points in 35 minutes of action.

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The Longhorns (9-0) took a 23-15 lead after the first quarter and never gave it up. They scored 36 points off of 21 UConn turnovers and took care of the ball themselves with just nine turnovers.

Longhorns head coach Vic Schaefer had an ear-to-ear smile after the game.

“Their energy and how hard they played today … everybody in this room and everyone out there, if you couldn’t see a team that played their absolute guts out for 40 minutes. It was relentless,” he said.

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Texas was hot from the get-go, jumping out to a 15-3 lead about three minutes into the game, making its first seven shots. UConn worked back into the game and cut the lead to 19-14 after a Bueckers 3-pointer, but Texas ended the quarter with two jumpers from Harmon and Amina Muhammad.

Texas led 41-27 at halftime following a Booker bucket with 0:44 remaining in the second quarter. A McDonald’s All-American in high school, Booker never came out of the game and scored a season-high point total.

“Coach Schaefer told me, ‘Don’t pass up your shot,'” Booker said. “I had that in the back of my head, so I knew I had the green light. I shot it, it went in, it felt good, I was hot.”

What Harmon accomplished on the offensive end was tremendous, but she also had to guard Bueckers for most of the game. Schaefer called Bueckers, “probably the best 2-guard in the country,” so Harmon’s night was that much more impressive. Bueckers was the 2021 Naismith and Associated Press player of the year.

Muhammed scored 15 points with a game-high eight rebounds and Shaylee Gonzales chipped in 10 points for the Longhorns. It’s the seventh time in nine games that Texas has scored 80 or more points.

Texas hosts Long Beach State at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

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