Three observations from Texas' season-opening women's basketball win over Southern

No. 13 Texas opened its season Wednesday night with an 80-35 win at Moody Center.

During the first three years of the Vic Schaefer era, Texas has never trailed during a season opener. Wednesday was no different. Rori Harmon scored the season's first points on a jumper that was made 118 seconds into the game, and UT had built a 21-7 lead by the end of the first quarter.

The lead swelled to 45-15 by halftime, and Southern (0-2) never cut into that 30-point deficit in the second half. Led by forward Taylor Jones' 19 points, UT got scoring contributions from nine players.

Texas (1-0) will return to Moody Center on Sunday afternoon for a game against Liberty (1-0).

Here are three observations and a quote from the Longhorns' season-opening victory:

Amina Muhammad shines in her first start

When the season officially tipped off, it wasn't a surprise to see Harmon, Shaylee Gonzales and Khadija Faye on the court. Those three combined for 94 starts last season. Heralded freshman Madison Booker also was an expected addition to the starting lineup.

Then there was Muhammad, a 6-foot-4 sophomore forward from DeSoto.

This season, Texas returned eight players who started at least once last season. Muhammad was not among that group even though she appeared in all 36 games and averaged 18.7 minutes. But she's considered to be one of UT's better defenders and rebounders, and fellow forwards DeYona Gaston (ankle) and Aaliyah Moore (knee) were unavailable Wednesday.

Muhammad didn't look like a first-time starter. She had already recorded her first career double-double by the time she sat for the first time with 2 minutes, 18 seconds left in the second quarter.

Muhammad finished with 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting and a career-high 14 rebounds, eight of which were offensive. The 14 points matched a career-high effort against Rutgers last season.

Free throw shooting hasn't gotten better

Texas failed to cash in on several opportunities to score free points. The Longhorns missed 13 of the 23 free throws they attempted. Four times, a Longhorn missed both free throws after getting fouled on a shot.

"About the only thing negative you can say is we didn't shoot free throws very well," Schaefer said. "We'll have to spend time working on it. We shoot ’em real well in the practice gym. We just didn't shoot ’em well tonight in the arena. We're usually pretty good over there."

Last season, Texas made just 67.6% of its free throws. That ranked 269th among the 350 Division I teams.

After focusing on rebounds, Texas dominated the offensive boards

Texas grabbed 22 offensive rebounds and turned those into 24 second-chance points. On the other end of the court, an undersized Southern team got only five offensive rebounds. The Jaguars did not turn any of those into points.

"I feel like we've been emphasizing that in practice over the past week because we didn't really do a good job of everybody going towards the glass in the closed scrimmage versus USC," Muhammad said. "I think that's been an emphasis in practice with coach and stuff."

They said it: Harmon wears another No. 3 jersey ahead of the season opener

Texas guard Rori Harmon: "(Allen Iverson is) definitely someone I idolize and have for a really long time. He just had so much passion in the game. I feel like I can see myself in him. So yeah, for my first game, I did choose him as that. Luckily I got the jersey, I just found it at a thrift shop outside, just somewhere in Austin, and they were selling it for $45 and it was perfect. I usually hang it up on my wall, but I took it down just for this."

Harmon arrived Wednesday wearing an Allen Iverson Philadelphia 76ers jersey. Like Iverson, Harmon wears No. 3 for Texas. The Big 12 preseason player of the year opened her junior season with eight points, nine assists, seven rebounds and four steals.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas women rout visiting Southern in opener for basketball season