The Texas Longhorns women’s basketball team remained hot in their red river rivalry matchup with the Oklahoma Sooners in Norman. The Longhorns improved to 14-6 and 6-2 in Big 12 play while the Sooners drop to .500 with a 10-10 overall record and 3-5 in the conference after a fourth-straight loss. The Longhorns won their fifth-straight game. A big second quarter sparked the 70-53 victory for the Horns.
The game got off to a slow start in their matchup on Tuesday night. It wasn’t until almost three minutes into the quarter before the Sooners broke the scoreless tie with a Mandy Simpson layup gave Oklahoma a 2-0 lead. The two teams would trade buckets throughout the first quarter of the game. Celeste Taylor and Charli Collier each scored four points as Texas closed out the quarter on a 6-0 run to lead 18-15.
In the first Texas found themselves down 13-15 before the run in the first, that run continued in the second quarter for the Longhorns. Texas would go on a 16-0 run to increase their lead to 29-15. The Sooners wouldn’t find an answer until 4:46 left in the second when they finally got on the board. The 14-point margin would be their largest of the quarter and Texas took a 37-23 lead into the half. Charli Collier would lead all the starters with eight points and three rebounds. Lashann Higgs came off the bench to provide nine points and she would lead all scorers at the half.
Collier started up the scoring in the third with a layup and Taylor would extend the lead to 41-23 early on in the quarter. That gave the Longhorns an 18-point lead, Oklahoma immediately took a timeout to try and slow the Texas momentum. Sooners would answer with six straight points to get within 12 points before Joyner Holmes, Taylor and Higgs would fire back with six of their own to get the lead back to 18. Texas led 47-29 with 3:42 to play in the third. The Longhorns took a 51-35 lead into the final quarter after outscoring the Sooners 14-12 in the quarter.
In the fourth quarter it would be more of the same from Texas, after a Liz Scott layup got Oklahoma within 14 the Longhorns would go on another run. Higgs and Taylor would give Texas their biggest lead of the game to this point at 20 with 5:41 to go but it didn’t stop there. A 10-0 run would balloon the lead to 67-41 before OU could answer. The Sooners went on a 11-0 run to close out the game but it was too little too late.