{"id":225144,"date":"2026-03-28T23:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T23:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/225144\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T23:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T23:28:09","slug":"jordan-lee-leads-texas-to-blowout-win-over-kentucky-in-womens-sweet-16-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/225144\/","title":{"rendered":"Jordan Lee leads Texas to blowout win over Kentucky in women\u2019s Sweet 16 matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT WORTH \u2014 Texas<\/a> made Dickies Arena look like its home court Saturday, dominating Kentucky 76-54 in the Sweet 16.<\/p>\n

The top-seeded Longhorns (34\u20133) led 5-seed Kentucky (25\u201311) for all but 58 seconds of the game and will meet No. 2-seed Michigan (28\u20136) in the Elite Eight on Monday. <\/p>\n

Texas advanced to the regional finals for the third straight season and looks to continue what it hopes is a championship run after falling in the Final Four last year<\/a>. The Longhorns won their previous two games against 16-seed Missouri State and 8-seed Oregon by 42 points and had a similar onslaught against Kentucky, a team Texas beat 64-53 on Feb. 9 during the regular season.<\/p>\n

Texas shot 54% from the floor and outrebounded Kentucky 38-29. The Longhorns scored 26 points off turnovers and outscored the Wildcats 20-0 on the fast break. <\/p>\n

Sports Roundup<\/p>\n

Get the latest D-FW sports news, analysis and opinion delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, Kevin Sherrington’s A La Carte.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re playing well right now,\u201d Texas coach Vic Schaefer said. ” It is our best basketball of the year.”<\/p>\n

Sophomore guard Jordan Lee scored a game-high 18 points, shooting 8 of 13 from the floor. Junior forward Madison Booker<\/a> recorded 17 points on 8 of 16 shooting, adding 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Senior guard Rori Harmon recorded 11 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists.<\/p>\n

Kentucky opened the game\u2019s scoring, but the Longhorns responded with a 15-0 first-quarter scoring run and never relinquished the lead. Texas led 48-26 at the half and limited a Wildcats team that had five players averaging in double figures, with center Clara Strack leading the way (16.9 points, 10.3 rebounds per game).<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s got to be a certain urgency and intensity that we play with to not let any team try to work their way back,\u201d Harmon said. \u201cI think that\u2019s how we came out today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas, ahead 21 entering the fourth quarter, opened the scoring in the final period, but the Wildcats went on an 8-0 run to come within 15. The Longhorns ended their scoring drought with 5:09 to go in the game, starting a 7-0 run capped by a Lee 3-pointer.<\/p>\n

The Longhorns also struggled at the free throw line, finishing 5 of 15.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the second half was frustrating at times, but at the same time, it\u2019s really hard with young people to get them to understand \u2018Hey, let\u2019s go out and play [until the clock hits] 00.00,\u2033 Schaefer said.<\/p>\n

One of the top teams in the nation throughout the season, Texas won its first SEC tournament championship<\/a> earlier this month with a 78-61 win over the No. 1 seed and defending SEC tournament champion South Carolina.<\/p>\n

Texas is one of two SEC teams still alive in the tournament. Vanderbilt and LSU lost Friday and Kentucky fell Saturday. South Carolina beat Oklahoma in a later game for a spot in the Elite Eight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s March, you want to be hot at this time of the year,\u201d Lee said. \u201cGoing forward, the level of competition, the preparation\u2019s only going to get higher. It\u2019s only going to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/a>Texas rides historic start past Kentucky, into Elite Eight for 5th time under Vic Schaefer<\/a><\/p>\n

The Longhorns set a program record, as their 22-point halftime lead was Texas\u2019 largest ever in an NCAA Tournament game.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/a>Texas Longhorns\u2019 path to women\u2019s Final Four runs through SEC, starting with Kentucky<\/a><\/p>\n

Of the 10 SEC teams that made the women\u2019s NCAA Tournament, six are still alive in the Sweet 16.<\/p>\n

Find more Texas coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT WORTH \u2014 Texas made Dickies Arena look like its home court Saturday, dominating Kentucky 76-54 in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3688,116,48876,154,27,29,537,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-225144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-colleges","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-march-madness","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-headlines","14":"tag-texas-longhorns","15":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}