Texas women’s basketball had a hard time finding an offensive rhythm Friday and now UCLA has made program history.
The Longhorns recorded season-low output in a 51-44 loss to UCLA on Friday. UCLA (36-1) advances to play South Carolina (36-3) in its first-ever title game appearance Sunday.The 44 points Texas scored were not only its fewest all season, the Longhorns didn’t finish any game with less than 60 points this season and they’ve scored fewer than 50 just one other time over the past 65 games.
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Texas Longhorns forward Madison Booker (35) is blocked from shooting by UCLA forward Angela Ugalic (32) during the NCAA Final Four game at the Mortgage Matchup Center on Friday, April 3, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
Tough break for a Texas team that Vic Schaefer has called one of his most offensively talented. But Texas could not overcome an ice-cold performance (six points, no assists) from leading scorer Madison Booker, who was named an All-American for the third time in her career this season.
But teammate Rori Harmon came to Booker’s defense.
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“You guys have to realize she’s human,” the 5-foot-6 senior guard said, “and we wanted her to shoot her shot. No matter the stats… all eyes go to Madison Booker.”
Booker is a 6-foot-1 forward averaged 19.3 points on 52.3% field-goal shooting but she she struggled after making her first shot of the night. She added seven rebounds but her 3-for-23 shooting accounted almost half of Texas’ misses in a 20-for-65 (30.8%) shooting performance. Layups went wayward, jumpers hit back iron — the future WNBA draft pick couldn’t buy a bucket while often being guarded by 6-foot-7 UCLA center Lauren Betts.
Texas center Kyla Oldacre led the Longhorns with 11 points and seven rebounds, both team highs, and Betts led the Bruins with 16 points and 11 rebounds. UCLA led for three-and-a-half periods, but Texas used a fourth-quarter 10-2 run to close the deficit to three points. Then Booker’s 23rd field-goal attempt of the night was blocked by Betts with under 30 seconds left.
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The Bruins made four free throws down the stretch to maintain the lead and send the program to its first-ever national title game. The seven-point defeat ends the Longhorns’ season with a 35-4 record and extends the program’s championship drought to 40 seasons.
Love for Texas Longhorns seniors
Despite the loss, Texas won ran off multiple winning streaks of 10 games or more and won the SEC Tournament for the first time this season. Jordan Lee talked about the impact senior such as Harmon, Teya Sidberry, Ashton Judd, Kyla Oldacre and Sarah Graves made on the team.
“Teya and Ashton choosing to come here and spend their last years with us, it just means so much,” the sophomore guard said. “Sarah’s been one of my closest friends since I’ve gotten here and we’ve just developed such a special bond with some our interests off the court.
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“Rori has demonstrated a lot of great things. She’s been the head of this Vic snake the last five years and just has done such a great job with the challenges that he’s put in front of her. Kyla is just so amazing. Everybody calls her the mom of the group just because how special she is. She truly is extremely selfless and you see that in the way she plays on the court.”
Lee, one of the team’s top shooters, finished with seven points and three turnovers over 24 minutes.
‘We may never replace her’
After the game head coach Vic Schaefer took a chance to shoutout Rori Harmon. She finishes her career with 1,616 points, 977 assists, 659 rebounds and 388 steals. She’s the only player in the sport’s history to have 1,600 points, 900 assists, 650 boards and 350 steals.
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“Not one agency has ever voted her All-American,” Schaefer said. “There’s not another player in history of our game — you hear me? — not another player in the history of our game that have had those stats, those four statistic. One-hundred thirty-seven games. Get rid of whatever awards you got if she ain’t good enough to get one of them.
For her part, Harmon was named an honorable mention for AP All-American four times. She’s been all-conference three times and a defensive player of the year. But that wasn’t good enough for her coach.
“You want to talk about somebody that’s hard to replace?” Schaefer said. “We may never replace her.”
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