{"id":693901,"date":"2026-03-31T03:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/693901\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:34:14","slug":"texas-rolls-past-michigan-in-fort-worth-to-book-return-trip-to-womens-final-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/693901\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas rolls past Michigan in Fort Worth to book return trip to women’s Final Four"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT WORTH \u2014\u00a0Texas<\/a> cruised through the first three rounds of the NCAA Tournament to return to the Elite Eight for a third straight year in front of a crowd full of burnt orange at Dickies Arena.<\/p>\n

The Longhorns thought maybe, finally, they\u2019d face a bump in the road against a skilled Michigan team<\/a> while seeking to reach their second consecutive Final Four.<\/p>\n

But Monday evening, Texas showed just how dominant it has been, taking down Michigan 77-41 and riding a lights-out start to the finish. The Longhorns\u2019 average margin of victory through four tournament games now sits at 35.5 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have absolutely played their hearts out,\u201d Texas coach Vic Schaefer said. \u201cTheir chemistry is off the chart right now. They’re playing for each other. They’re having fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sports Roundup<\/p>\n

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With the win, the Longhorns reached consecutive Final Fours for the first time since 1986-87 when Jody Conradt led Texas to its lone national title the first of those years.<\/a> Texas will face fellow 1-seed UCLA Friday in Phoenix. Texas was UCLA\u2019s only loss of the season, with Texas winning their Nov. 26 meeting 76-65.<\/p>\n

\"TheView Gallery<\/p>\n

All season long, the four 1-seeds have been, by far, better than the rest. With a South Carolina win over TCU later Monday night, those four teams would get to duke it out for the national title.<\/p>\n

Texas looked like the better team from the start Monday and jumped out to a lead from which Michigan could never recover. Texas took an 18-4 lead in the first quarter, starting 9 for 9 from the field, while Michigan started 1 for 7.<\/p>\n

Texas missed just one field goal in the first quarter, emerging with a 22-9 lead.<\/p>\n

Michigan put up a better fight in the second quarter but could never make up enough ground to close the sizable Texas advantage. Any time the Wolverines went on a run, Madison Booker<\/a> answered. Texas\u2019 leading scorer led the Longhorns again with 19 points on 8 of 13 shooting and seven rebounds.<\/p>\n

In the second half, her fellow post players took over. The Longhorns capitalized on their size inside, outscoring Michigan 36-18 in the paint and finishing with a 49-32 advantage on the boards.<\/p>\n

Booker, Kyla Oldacre, Justice Carlton and Breya Cunningham combined for a 15-2 run late in the third quarter to put Texas up 28 points. The lead grew to 40 points in the fourth quarter. All four post players finished in double figures.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir size and their physicality and the rebounding,\u201d Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said. \u201cTexas smoked us in the rebounding battle. The 50\/50 balls, we pride ourselves on coming up with those. They were ripping them out of our hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were tired, and we’re usually the team that’s making other people tired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas\u2019 guards weren\u2019t as productive. Rori Harmon and Jordan Lee combined for just 11 points, despite averaging 22. Lee shot just 2 of 17 from the field and 0 of 8 from 3-point range. Texas started 0 of 9 from 3-point range before making its first midway through the third quarter. Harmon, however, had 13 assists and just three turnovers.<\/p>\n

Olivia Olson and Mila Holloway led Michigan with 11 points each. The Wolverines shot just 22.8% from the field and 13.3% from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis might be the best team [I\u2019ve had] that can take a scout in a day or a day and a half and go execute it in a game,\u201d Schaefer said.<\/p>\n

Texas and its next opponent, UCLA, both suffered heartbreaking blowouts in the Final Four last year. The Bruins lost 85-51 to UConn, while Texas lost 74-57 to South Carolina.<\/a><\/p>\n

This time around, one will advance a round further and might even get a chance at revenge depending on whom its national championship opponent will be.<\/p>\n

Find more Texas coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT WORTH \u2014\u00a0Texas cruised through the first three rounds of the NCAA Tournament to return to the Elite…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":693902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,347,7371,7372,358,9662,290510,290509,290508,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-693901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-america","tag-article","tag-fort-worth","tag-fortworth","tag-texas","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-tp-march-madness","tag-tp-texas-longhorns","tag-tp-colleges","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116321692929087302","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}