Texas advances to Final Four with 58-47 win over TCU

Vic Schaefer has the Horns among the last four teams standing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 22 years.

Breakthrough.

For the first time since the Jody Conradt era, the No. 1 seed Texas Longhorns are back in the Final Four after Monday’s 58-47 victory over the No. 2 seed TCU Horned Frogs in Birmingham, keyed by a stifling defense that forced 21 turnovers and limited TCU star forward Sedona Prince to a single basket before fouling out.

When Prince fouled out with 6:32 remaining and Longhorns star sophomore forward Madison Booker made a clutch jumper to go up by 12 points, the game was effectively over, having turned on a 10-2 run by Texas during the third quarter to enter the fourth with a nine-point lead.

A key play early in the fourth quarter was emblematic of how the game went for upstart TCU in the midst of its best season in program history — pressuring Prince on an inbounds pass, 6’6 forward Kyla Oldacre come up with the steal and rumbled down the court, finishing through Prince’s contact and completing the three-point play at the free-throw line.

The trademark Texas defense was at its best on Monday. TCU often struggled to simply inbound the basketball, as they did on Oldacre’s big steal and finish. When the Horned Frogs were able to get the ball in, full-court pressure by the Horns made it difficult to get past half court. When TCU did get the ball past halfcourt, they couldn’t get the ball into the lane as Texas notched a 24-8 edge in points in the paint.

The Horned Frogs only managed to shoot 26.7 from the floor and 20 percent from three as Prince worked almost entirely from the perimeter, attempting just four shots and turning the ball over twice. Star point guard Haley Van Lith, a thorn in the side of Texas over the last several years, needed 10 free throws to score 17 points thanks to 3-of-15 shooting as the Horns harried her into seven turnovers compared to just two assists.

Booker led Texas by scoring a game-high 18 points on 8-of-17 shooting and senior guard Rori Harmon added 13 points with a team-high five assists while Oldacre scored nine points with five rebounds off the bench.

In transition, the Longhorns were opportunistic, outscoring the Horned Frogs 9-2 on fast breaks while recording a 17-6 edge in points off turnovers.

It was a long-awaited moment for head coach Vic Schaefer and Texas after making the Elite Eight in four of his five seasons on the Forty Acres, but proving unable to make the Final Four for the first time since 2003 until Monday’s big victory.

The reasonably muted celebration even though so many of these players have been involved in those crushing Elite Eight losses suggested that the team still has its sight set on the biggest prize — Schaefer’s first national title and the program’s second national title.

Schaefer faces a familiar foe in Dawn Staley’s South Carolina on April 4 in Tampa at either 6 p.m. Central or 8:30 p.m. Central on ESPN.