Texas women's basketball coach Vic Schaefer calls out his team and himself after win

The Texas women's basketball team did what it had to do Wednesday night. Amina Muhammad and Taylor Jones combined to score 35 points, and the No. 5-ranked Longhorns thwarted Texas Tech's upset bid in a 77-72 victory at Moody Center.

With the win, Texas (25-3, 12-3) remained in a second-place tie with Kansas State (23-4, 12-3) in the Big 12 standings and pulled back within a game of first-place Oklahoma (19-7, 13-2). Since one of UT's three remaining games is against the Sooners, the Longhorns control their fate as they try to defend the title they split last season with OU.

Here are three observations and a quote from the close call at home:

Vic Schaefer: The Longhorns deserved to lose

Ahead of most postgame press conferences, Texas coach Vic Schaefer usually takes a few minutes at the podium to look over the box score. But as he took his seat, he immediately told his sports information director that he was ready because "I don't need to look at the stats to say what I'm going to say."

Schaefer opened by commending a shorthanded Texas Tech team for its play. But then the Longhorns drew the ire of their coach. In fact, he said Texas was "lucky" to have kept its seven-game winning streak alive.

Among Schaefer's comments:

∙ "You know, we're lucky. That's all I can tell you. We're lucky to get out of here with a win, and there's nothing else to really explain it other than luck."

∙ "We played a team that was tougher than us, played harder than us, attacked better than us tonight. We won the game, but we're lucky we aren't learning a hard lesson tonight with a loss. And in my mind, we deserved to lose. We didn't honor the game tonight. We didn't play hard. We were out there playing cool, going half-tail. That's not us. That's not my team. That's not how we practice or prepare. It really bothers me. In my mind, we didn't earn the victory tonight. I thought Texas Tech really took the fight to us and Coach (Krista) Gerlach and her team are to be commended for that."

∙ "Don't blame them; blame me. I'm responsible for that mess tonight, and I'll be accountable. But as a coach that's been around a long time, my job is to have them ready. I didn't have them ready. But that bothers me because my coaching staff didn't take the day off; they didn't not prepare as well as we have for other games.

"We didn't not watch as much film as we normally do. We didn't not have the focus necessary coming in. But again, we've got to take a breath and realize it's never going to mean as much to them as it does to us. I learned that a long time ago. One of my mentors told me that, Vic, you need to stop getting all worked up; it's never going to mean as much to the kids as it does to you as a coach. That doesn't make it any easier, y'all. We're lucky; we won the game. I'm hopeful my kids will learn from it. But when you have worked all year to put yourself in this position with four to go, you have four championship games. Now we have three, and that's what you're going to bring to the table? I might owe (Chris Del Conte) some money. I might not have earned my check tonight."

∙ "I didn't see a whole lot of urgency tonight, y'all. That didn't look to me like a team that's hungry for a championship. I've got to do better there. I've got to find some kids that are on my page that are going to play with the same urgency that I coach with and that we prepare with. We'll just leave it at that."

∙ "We gave up 72 points. I'm going to put it in perspective for you. That team scored (32 points at Baylor) on Sunday. That's how hard we didn't play tonight. So offense wasn't our issue. Defense was our issue and how hard we didn't play."

Amina Muhammad comes up big for Texas

Over 35 minutes, Muhammad knocked down six of her eight shots and scored 16 points. That point total was one off her career high. Muhammad also grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds, 10 of them offensive.

"They weren't really boxing out much, so I was just crashing the paint, going to rebound, running really hard, going around them and just rebounding," said Muhammad, who took advantage of Texas Tech being without two of its leading rebounders.

With the exception of a game against Cincinnati that Booker missed with a hamstring injury, Texas had used the same starting lineup in eight of its previous nine contests. But Muhammad started in place of junior forward Aaliyah Moore on Wednesday.

Moore played only two minutes. Schaefer said she's dealing with tendinitis in her right knee.

Texas survives without Madison Booker

Madison Booker picked up her second, third and fourth fouls within a 31-second span in the third quarter. Former UT guard Ashley Chevalier drew two of those whistles, and Texas was forced to sit its star point guard with 5:45 left in the quarter. She didn't return until there was 4:27 left in the game.

Without Booker and with Gisella Maul and Shaylee Gonzales running its offense, UT survived. The Longhorns led 38-35 when Booker was benched. Texas led 60-54 when she returned.

Upon her return in the fourth quarter, Booker quickly got back to work. She distributed two key assists to Jones and Gonzales. She also knocked down all six of the free throws she attempted in the final 49 seconds.

They said it: Is this the end of the Texas-Texas Tech rivalry?

"I grew up doing this and played in a lot of games like this and love the environment. I hope that maybe somehow we can continue to have it because it needs to happen with all the Texas schools. There's some really great history, especially in women's basketball. It was a fun last game, if you will." — Texas Tech coach Krista Gerlich

Texas and Texas Tech have now played 112 times, but Wednesday was the last scheduled contest between two schools that have each won a national championship in their histories. Gerlich, who played for Texas Tech, and Schaefer both said they'd be open to playing in the future.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Basketball coach Vic Schaefer calls out Longhorns after Texas Tech win