Madison Booker scored 17 points, capped by two key free throws with 35.1 seconds to play, as No. 1 Texas outlasted No. 5 Tennessee 67-59 on Saturday afternoon in a Birmingham 3 Region semifinal in Birmingham, Ala.
The Longhorns (34-3) advance to the Elite Eight to square off against No. 2 TCU, a 71-62 winner over No. 3 Notre Dame in the region’s first semifinal, on Monday. Texas, which hasn’t won the national championship since 1986 when it went 34-0, reached the Elite Eight for the fourth time in the past five seasons.
The contest was tied at 50-50 heading into the fourth quarter before the Longhorns took the lead for good on Booker’s bucket with 6:29 remaining. Taylor Jones’ layup stoked the Longhorns’ margin to 63-58, and Tennessee never got closer than four points the rest of the way.
Jordan Lee added 13 points for Texas, with freshmen Jones and Bryanna Preston scoring a dozen each.
Ruby Whitehorn led Tennessee (24-10) with 16 points. Zee Spearman had 13 and Samara Spencer scored 12 for the Lady Volunteers, who made only 5 of their 26 3-point shots.
The Lady Vols went scoreless over the final 4:37 of the first period as Texas garnered a 21-13 advantage after 10 minutes of play. Tennessee rallied to tie the game at 28 on Whitehorn’s 3-pointer with 2:07 to play in the second period before Texas ran off six of the final eight points of the half and led 34-30 at the break.
Four players scored six points each to lead the Longhorns’ offense before halftime as Texas shot 55.6 percent from the floor. Whitehorn paced all scorers with nine points in the first half.
A 3-pointer by Lee three minutes into the third quarter pushed Texas’ lead to 41-34 before the Lady Vols roared back, using a 15-6 run capped by Whitehorn’s jumper with 40 seconds left to leapfrog to a 49-47 advantage. The game was tied at 50-50 heading to the final period.
–Field Level Media
