No. 3 Texas pounds BYU, takes some momentum into women's basketball postseason

Coming off Wednesday's disappointing loss at Oklahoma, No. 3 Texas bounced back by beating BYU.

Madison Booker scored 20 points Saturday night and Texas shook loose from an early challenge from BYU in a 71-46 win at Moody Center. The 25-point triumph closed out the regular season for Texas (27-4, 14-4), which secured the No. 2 seed in the Big 12 Tournament. The Longhorns will take the first two rounds of the tournament off and won't have to play in Kansas City until Saturday at 5:30 p.m.

Here are three observations and a quote as the Longhorns closed out the regular season in style:

Madison Booker makes her closing argument

The Big 12 will release its all-conference awards on Tuesday. That gave Booker one last chance to impress conference coaches who will vote for, among other awards, the player and freshman of the year.

Booker knocked down seven of her 12 shots and added five assists, three rebounds and two steals. Among her highlights was a buzzer-beating jumper to end the first quarter and a third-quarter sequence that featured her turning a steal off an inbounds play into a three-point play.

At 16.5 points per game, Booker leads Texas in scoring. She's also averaging 4.9 assists and 4.9 rebounds per game. Recruited as a wing player, she took over at point guard in December after Rori Harmon's season-ending knee injury.

Head coach Vic Schaefer won't be allowed to vote for his own players, but when asked Saturday what he'd say to his Big 12 colleagues in an effort to increase support for Booker, he said "I think they've gotten enough of a dose of Madison and realize how special she is and how difficult she is to deal with. ... I think from a perspective of being the best player in the conference, when you lay it all out, who's the hardest to deal with? Who's the hardest to guard? Who do you not want to get left on an island with? I don't want to be on an island having to guard her, I can tell you. I think that's the answer."

Booker will likely compete with Oklahoma forward Skylar Vann and Kansas State center Ayoka Lee for the conference player of the year award. Lee missed seven games this season with various injuries, but she averages 19.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per game; Vann led OU to the Big 12 championship and averages 15 points and 7.2 rebounds.

Booker may not even have the league's freshman of the year award locked up. Iowa State center Audi Crooks averaged 18.3 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. Booker and Crooks have each been honored as the Big 12's freshman of the week four times.

Texas sends off seniors with a win

After the game, Texas celebrated guard Shaylee Gonzales and forward Khadija Faye on Senior Night. Both have spent the past two seasons at Texas after starting their careers at BYU and Texas Tech, respectively.

Gonzales, who ranks 11th on BYU's career scoring list, scored just three points over 36 minutes Saturday, but she distributed five assists and had three steals. Faye was the first player that Texas called off the bench and she finished with two free throws over nine minutes.

Faye recently missed seven games for personal reasons before making a brief appearance in the Oklahoma loss. Her nine minutes on Saturday accounted for her most playing time since Jan. 16. She appeared to be exhausted near the end of an extended stint on the court in the first quarter.

"It's going to show a little bit, but I'm working my way back," Faye said when asked about her conditioning. "Hopefully I'll get there soon."

Texas drew an announced crowd of 10,364 on Saturday. Due to its "10K for 10K" promotion, $167,500 will be donated to the Neighborhood Longhorns Foundation.

Longhorns score three points the hard way

Texas made just two of its seven appointed 3-pointers, but some possessions still resulted in three points anyway: the Longhorns produced a three-point play six times. Taylor Jones followed up her shot with a free throw and Booker did that twice, as well as DeYona Gaston.

As for those lack of 3-pointers, that's nothing new. Texas ranks last in the conference in made 3-pointers. Texas has made at least five 3-pointers in a game just twice in its last 18 games.

They said it: Texas turns its attention to the postseason

"I feel like we definitely ended conference play on a good note. Obviously, we're going to take that in but realize that we've got games ahead of us that we need to prepare for. Obviously we know that they're really good teams and we played them before so just preparing super well and getting ready for those." — Shaylee Gonzales

Next up for Texas: the Big 12 Tournament

The Longhorns won the 2022 Big 12 Tournament and were runners-up last year in Kansas City. Texas will get the winner of Friday's BYU-Kansas game on Saturday; the Longhorns beat Kansas by 35 points in January and beat BYU in their only meeting this season. Texas also remains in contention for one of the four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament. The Longhorns were listed sixth overall in Thursday's top-16 rankings by the NCAA Tournament selection committee.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas basketball team beats BYU to end regular season on a high note