FORT WORTH, Texas — After a two-decade drought ended last season, the Texas women’s basketball team is going to the Final Four for the second year in a row.
The No. 1 seed Longhorns continued what has been a drama-free run to the national semifinals Monday with a 77-41 victory over No. 2 seed Michigan. The Longhorns have won 12 games in a row and will look to add a national championship to the SEC tournament title they won March 8.
They will face fellow No. 1 seed UCLA on Friday in Phoenix.
Last season, the Longhorns advanced to the national semifinals for the first time since 2003, a breakthrough for coach Vic Schaefer in his fifth year in charge of the program. They lost to SEC rival South Carolina at the Final Four.
Texas dominated Michigan from start to finish in the Fort Worth Regional 3. Junior Madison Booker led the way with 19 points and was named the regional’s most outstanding player.
The Wolverines, who finished the season 28-7, shot just 23% from the field.
Early this season, Texas made it clear it would be in the national championship picture again, getting two back-to-back statement wins over UCLA and South Carolina at the Players Era Championship in November.
Texas surged to an 18-0 record before losing consecutive games to SEC rivals LSU and South Carolina on the road in mid-January.
The Longhorns then lost at Vanderbilt on Feb. 12, after which an irritated Schaefer called out his team.
“We have no heart,” Schaefer said at the time. “We’re not tough. It’s probably the softest team I’ve had in years. It translates from practices … my fault. I’ll wear it. It stops now.”
The Longhorns have not lost since. They won their three SEC tournament games by an average of 19 points and their four NCAA tournament games by an average of 35.5 points.
Texas’ lone national championship came in 1986 when the Longhorns went 34-0.
