AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas Longhorns head coach Vic Schaefer talked Thursday about how his team has evolved defensively this season, and they’ll have to do more of that when they face one of the country’s most diverse scoring teams Friday night in Gonzaga.
Top-seeded Texas and the fourth-seeded Bulldogs tip off at 9 p.m. CT from Moda Center in Portland, Oregon, in the women’s Sweet 16, and Schaefer said his team is “locked in” on that side of the ball.
“They understand that, on good nights, we’re usually locked in on that end, and that transfers over to our offensive cohesion and our chemistry there,” Schaefer said. “They get it.”
Against eighth-seeded Alabama in the second round at Moody Center, Schaefer was worried about the Crimson Tide’s dynamic offense — one that scored 76 points per game in the Southeastern Conference. The Longhorns limited Alabama to 54 points, and that baffled Schaefer. He was shocked. But then he thought about it a little more, and his club was able to do that against some of the best teams in the Big 12.
“I’m proud of where we’ve evolved to defensively,” he said. “I look at my team throughout the year and the teams we’ve have to play … and we’ve had games where we’ve held teams in the 40s and 50s. We’re pretty good, you know, most nights. I don’t want to say every night and have a train wreck tomorrow night. I don’t want to jinx myself.”
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A big part of that evolution was senior guard Shay Holle becoming the team’s lockdown defender after Rori Harmon went out for the season with a knee injury. Schaefer said Holle would typically get the third toughest defensive assignment behind Harmon and Shaylee Gonzales, but Holle developed quickly on the defensive end because “she cares,” Schaefer said.
“You can talk about the work and the time she’s put in, but it doesn’t happen if she doesn’t care,” Schaefer said. “She’s a giver.”
Gonzaga, West Coast Conference regular season champions at 16-0 that inexplicably lost to Portland in the WCC tournament title game, is the best 3-point shooting team in the country, hitting more than 41% of their shots. Behind identical twins Kayleigh and Kaylynne Truong on the perimeter, the Bulldogs are as lethal as anybody. When you throw in the inside presence of forward Yvonne Ejim, it’s no wonder why they are the No. 10 scoring team in the country.
“She is unique,” Schaefer said of Ejim, a 6-foot-1 senior forward who scored 17 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in the Bulldogs’ second-round win over fifth-seeded Utah. “She’s tough and is somebody you better know where she’s at all the time.”
The Bulldogs hit 12 3-pointers against the Utes in the 77-66 win with the Truong twins accounting for seven.
“Their games steady each other,” Gonzaga head coach Lisa Fortier said of the Truongs. “Kayleigh is a little bit more aggressive and Lynee sizes the situation up before she makes her move. If they were both snakes, they’d both have bite.”
Another wrinkle in the matchup is Texas guard Shaylee Gonzales playing against the Bulldogs again. While at BYU, Gonzales was a second-team All-American and regularly took on Gonzaga in West Coast Conference play. Fortier said playing her then is just like playing her now.
“It’s the same challenge, just a different jersey,” she said. “She’s been a great 3-point shooter, crafty and an active defender. All of those things are challenging if you let her play comfortably. She’s the same caliber of player now as she was then.”
With the game in the Pacific Northwest, it’s easier for Gonzaga fans to make the 350-mile trip from Spokane, Washington than Texas fans to make the 2,000-mile trip from Austin. Schaefer acknowledged that and said it could have a home game atmosphere for the Bulldogs, but he doesn’t mind. He’s happy to be a No. 1 seed wherever his team has to play.
“It’s no big deal, really,” Schaefer said. “I wouldn’t care if we were in Timbuktu or anywhere else.”