It was a David vs. Goliath matchup of biblical proportions at the Moody Center for this year’s rendition of the Lone Star Showdown. However, there was no happy ending for Texas A&M women’s basketball, as it was soundly defeated by No. 4 Texas 80-35 on Sunday, Jan. 18.

Texas walked into the matchup off the back of a two-game losing streak — its first pair of defeats in 2025 — against then-No. 12 LSU and No. 2 South Carolina. Meanwhile, the Aggies enjoyed some rest without a midweek game after suffering a 40-point blowout versus then-No. 7 Vanderbilt the prior weekend.

Come tip-off time, it was actually underdog A&M which got the scoring proceedings underway thanks to a pair of successful free throws from junior guard Janae Kent. Junior G Salese Blow followed that up with a layup to give the Aggies a 4-2 lead. 

However, unfortunately for the 12th Man who made the trip to Austin, this was the Maroon and White’s final lead all afternoon. The Longhorns’ suffocating defense refused to let the Aggies secure any sort of momentum, as they scored back-to-back buckets just once. 

From inbounding the ball to dribbling down the court, A&M simply couldn’t stop turning the ball over. The Aggies gave the rock away nine times through the first 10 minutes, eventually ending the occasion with 25 total turnovers. The Longhorns feasted on their extra possessions, securing 18 points off turnovers to the delight of the burnt orange crowd. A&M head coach Joni Taylor commented on the numerous five-second violations from the Aggies.

“The message to our team was, if we have something and we don’t like it, just hold it,” Taylor said. “I’d rather have a five second count and set our defense, then get a lot of ball turnover. So some of those turnovers were because of that’s what we told them to do.”

Despite shooting just 25.9% from the field and only one player boasting a positive plus-minus rating in the first half, A&M entered the locker room only down 10 with 20 more minutes of action left in store. Texas relied on its defense after an inefficient first-half shooting performance of its own, going 15-for-40 from the field.

However, the second half is when the wheels truly fell off the tractor for the Fightin’ Farmers. A&M was outscored 23-3 in the third quarter as the Aggies made just a single shot from the field while committing another seven turnovers. 

Things picked up slightly in the fourth quarter, as the Maroon and White put up eight points. However, that still wasn’t enough to outgun the Burnt Orange, who posted an identical 23 points in the final quarter of play. By the time the final buzzer sounded, the Longhorns came away with a whopping 80-35 victory, the second blowout loss for the Aggies in as many games.

“That’s the thing that we’ve got to get figured out is how we continue to maintain, you know, how we start,” Taylor said. “We’ve got to figure out how to finish the third and fourth quarter and be consistent in that regard. I don’t have a good answer for you.”

Scoring problems haunted A&M all day, as while Kent led all scorers with 16, its second-leading scorer had just five. The dynamic duo of senior G Ny’Ceara Pryor and junior forward Fatmata Janneh were nowhere to be found in Austin, shooting just 3-for-22 from the field. 

“We really, really had felt like those two kind of made them go,” Texas head coach Vic Schaefer said. “ … Our focus was really going to be on those two and just trying to limit their space. And so, yeah, it was definitely a focal point for us, and I thought we did a pretty good job.”

Meanwhile, the Longhorns created an extremely diverse offense that saw six different players put up eight or more points. Even though scoring was no issue for Texas, it certainly struggled to shoot the 3-pointer, going 1-of-18 from beyond the arc. 

However, 3-pointers don’t matter when you can dominate the paint as much as the Longhorns did. By the end of regulation, Texas had secured 58 rebounds, led by senior center Kyla Oldacre’s 18 boards. 

Following back-to-back blowout losses A&M has no time to recover before taking on No. 6 LSU at Reed Arena on Thursday, Jan. 22.