After opening the basketball season with a 123-51 win, things will get tougher for the Texas women’s basketball team.
On Friday night, Texas will host Richmond for its second game of the basketball season. Ranked No. 4 in the Associated Press’ preseason poll, Texas tipped off its season on Monday with an obliteration of Incarnate Word.
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An Atlantic-10 representative that reached the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament, Richmond was tied with Kentucky in the AP preseason poll’s No. 24 slot. The Spiders opened their season with Tuesday’s 83-49 victory over Mount St. Mary’s.
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Texas is 2-0 in its all-time series with Richmond. In addition to beating the Spiders in 1993, UT earned a 65-54 win at Richmond last season.
Stay tuned for live updates.
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Texas Longhorns guard Jordan Lee (7) puts the ball up in the second quarter as the Longhorns take on the Richmond Spiders at the Moody Center in Austin, Nov. 7, 2025.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Texas basketball vs Richmond game score: Live updates from opening night
4th (6:33): Texas 71, Richmond 51
A jumper with 6:36 left has given Texas forward Madison Booker her 20th point on the night. Booker has now recorded 29 20-point games in her three-year career.
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End 3: Texas 66, Richmond 43
Behind Madison Booker’s 18 points and 11 rebounds and the 13 points scored by Jordan Lee, Texas is 10 minutes away from a 2-0 start to its season. Texas has also gotten 12 points from freshman Aaliyah Crump this evening while Rori Harmon has distributed six assists while committing just one turnover.
Maggie Doogan has scored 13 points to lead Richmond, which has knocked down six 3-pointers but committed 19 turnovers. Starting guard Alicia Newell is back on the Richmond bench, but she has not played since her face was injured on a Texas offensive foul in the first quarter.
3rd (8:32): Texas 41, Richmond 24
After Texas scored the first six points of the second half, Richmond was forced to take a quick timeout. Madison Booker currently leads the Longhorns with her nine points. Maggie Doogan has also scored nine points for Richmond.
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Halftime: Texas 35, Richmond 24
Behind the play of sophomores Justice Carlton, Jordan Lee and Bryanna Preston, Texas has built a comfortable halftime lead at Moody Center. Carlton, Lee and Preston combined to score 14 points over the past 10 minutes.
During the second quarter, Preston and Lee never left the court while Carlton also grabbed four rebounds over her six minutes of action. In last year’s 65-54 win at Richmond, three three sophomores were all held scoreless and none played more than eight minutes during the entire game.
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More: Texas’ Bryanna Preston set for sophomore season, Rori Harmon’s return
After building a 16-14 lead by the end of the opening frame, Richmond shot just 27.3% from the field while committing seven turnovers in the second quarter. Senior forward Maggie Doogan scored six of the team’s eight points.
The second-session surge by the Longhorns came without the team’s top-two players having a huge offensive impact. Veteran point guard Rori Harmon sat out the first eight minutes of the quarter. All-American forward Madison Booker also struggled to a 1-for-4 shooting performance in the period, and the No. 2 free throw shooter in UT’s history missed three straight attempts from the charity stripe during one stretch.
2nd (6:24): Texas 25, Richmond 16
Texas found itself trailing at the end of the first quarter, but the Longhorns scored all nine of the second quarter’s points to seize control of the scoreboard. Texas has divided its points this quarter among Jordan Lee (four points), Bryanna Preston (three points), Breya Cunningham (two points) and Teya Sidberry (two points).
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So far, Richmond has missed all three of its shots in the second session. The Spiders have also committed three turnovers.
Texas Longhorns center Kyla Oldacre (00) defends against Richmond Spiders guard Rayne Wright (1) in the second quarter as the Longhorns take on the Richmond Spiders at the Moody Center in Austin, Nov. 7, 2025.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
End 1: Richmond 16, Texas 14
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Ava Persichetti and reigning Atlantic 10 Player of the Year Maggie Doogan helped Richmond build a five-point lead in the opening quarter. Texas, though, scored the session’s final three points to narrow the gap on the scoreboard.
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Madison Booker leads Texas with her six points.
The game was paused for a few minutes during the first quarter when Richmond guard Alicia Newell was bloodied on an offensive foul by Texas and needed to leave the game for medical attention. A starter who is responsible for six points and two steals so far, Newell has not returned since leaving the floor with 4:34 left in the opening session.
1st (4:45): Texas 9, Richmond 8
An 8-0 run by Richmond had Texas facing its first deficit and adversity of the season. Texas struck first tonight on a Breya Cunningham free throw and an Aaliyah Crump basket, but Richmond scored eight points over a 62-second span that included a 4-for-4 shooting performance on offense and two forced turnovers on defense.
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Texas, though, has responded to Richmond taking an 8-3 lead behind the play of Madison Booker. The All-American forward went on a 6-0 run by herself, and Booker’s basket off a Richmond turnover with 5:05 left in the first quarter gave UT the lead back.
Texas Longhorns starting lineup
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Richmond Spiders starting lineup
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Texas Longhorns forward Madison Booker (35) keeps the ball inbounds under after being fouled by Richmond Spiders guard Ava Persichetti (4) in the second quarter as the Longhorns take on the Spiders at the Moody Center in Austin, Nov. 7, 2025.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
For Vic Schaefer, what constitutes a perfect non-conference schedule?
In preparation for Friday’s game, sixth-year coach Vic Schaefer met with the media this week and noted that “it’s really early for us to be playing somebody in the top-25.” That statement actually didn’t reflect the Schaefer era at Texas, however. Stanford, which was then the NCAA’s defending champion and the AP poll’s No. 3 team, was the second game on UT’s schedule during the 2021-22 season. The season after that, No. 5 UConn was the Longhorns’ second game.
But Texas is also one season removed from a schedule that didn’t feature a ranked foe until its seventh game. The Longhorns opened their 2023-24 campaign with eight games against uninspiring competition.
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So, is there a perfect way to build a nonconference schedule? Should the Longhorns schedule tough teams and sign up for NIL-offering invitational tournaments as a way to test themselves? Or should they schedule what Schaefer likes to call “three-name directional schools” as a way to stack wins and get playing time for players lower on the bench?
On Wednesday, Schaefer was asked just that. Schaefer noted that being a member of the Southeastern Conference will guarantee Texas a good nonconference game each season since that conference participates in the ACC/SEC Challenge, which will bring No. 11 North Carolina to Austin in December. Texas will also participate in the Players Era Championship in Las Vegas during each of the next three seasons.
“When you do that, you’re putting yourself out there and certainly those games will challenge you early,” Schaefer said. “I think the thing for me as a coach is while we’ve talked about developing toughness and competitive spirit and all that early, you’ve got to stay healthy because you’ve got no chance in those games in November if you’re not healthy.
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“My kids would much rather play those teams than some three-name directional school. But for me, when you’ve got a bunch of young kids, a lot of times, you’re trying to develop your depth. It’s hard to develop your depth if you’re playing some of these other (tough) teams, or a lot of them, if that makes sense. So it’s a balancing act. That’s what it is.”
This season, five of UT’s 15 nonconference games will be against a team ranked by the AP in the preseason. In addition to Richmond and North Carolina, Texas will face No. 3 UCLA and No. 16 Baylor as well as either No. 2 South Carolina or No. 7 Duke in Las Vegas.