Texas Longhorns Blown Out by Vanderbilt on the Road – Sports Illustrated

The Texas Longhorns women’s basketball team won three games in a row against ranked conference opponents at the Moody Center, further solidifying the fact that they don’t lose at home. 
However, a trip to Nashville, Tennessee, to take on the No. 5 Vanderbilt Commodores proved to be too tough of a battle for head coach Vic Schaefer and his team Thursday night.
The Commodores had accumulated a 16-point lead by the end of the matchup, with the final score at Memorial Gymnasium reading 86-70.
The Longhorns went down early, working their way into a 12-point deficit after just one quarter. They made just six of 19 shots during these first 10 minutes of play, while the Commodores made nine of 12. This could demonstrate poor shot selection by the Longhorns, but Schaefer said after the game that toughness was the most critical issue for his team.
Texas forced 17 turnovers against Vanderbilt, but they failed to slow down some of the Commodores toughest players like guards Mikayla Blakes and Aubrey Galvan. In fact, Blakes actually recorded 34 points against Texas on Thursday night, demonstrating her own prowess and their defensive failure. 
The star guard averages 26.2 points a game, so the Longhorns’ inability to keep her in or below that range isn’t a positive sign.
As far as offense goes for Texas, forward Madison Booker led the charge with 20 points, and forward Breya Cunningham followed with 14. Forward Justice Carlton and guard Aaliyah Crump, two younger players who have shown up big for the Longhorns throughout this past stretch, were a little bit quieter in Thursday’s matchup.
Following a win against the No. 18 Kentucky Wildcats that Schaefer wasn’t satisfied with, this loss seems like one that might’ve highlighted ongoing issues that the team has had. 
That being said, they will get an opportunity for redemption against the No. 22 Tennessee Volunteers on Sunday in Knoxville, Tennessee. This doubles as an opportunity to show that they can beat tough teams on the road, something that they have struggled with throughout the conference season. 
This conference is a gauntlet, as several players and coaches throughout the league have emphasized. Five of the top 10 teams in the country belong to the SEC, so it will be interesting to see how the rest of the season, along with the conference championships and March Madness take shape in the near future. 
Payton Blalock is a staff writer for Texas Longhorns in SI. She attends the University of Texas at Austin, where she is a journalism and plan II honors major. She is also a general sports reporter for the Daily Texan on the swimming beat. You can find Blalock on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @Payton_Blalock9.
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