BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – TCU women’s basketball superstar Hailey Van Lith is a test for any defense. Texas, with the best scoring defense in the SEC and one of the best in the nation, aced the test Monday in a 58-47 Elite Eight win over the Horned Frogs.
The Longhorns and coach Vic Schaefer employed several defenders to slow Van Lith, the Big 12 Player of the Year. Van Lith finished with 17 points but struggled from the floor.
She shot 3–of-15 and turned the ball over seven times, tying a season-high. Ten of her 17 points came from the free-throw line.
“We forced her to make four turnovers in the beginning of the game,” said senior guard Rori Harmon, who guarded Van Lith for the majority of the game. “That’s called being uncomfortable. Someone as good as her doesn’t normally make those kinds of turnovers.”
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It was that conscious uncomfortability and pride on defense that propelled No. 1 Texas to shut down “Miss March” and advance to its first Final Four since 2003.
Van Lith entered the contest averaging a team-high 17.9 points and 5.5 assists per game. This season, she set the single-season scoring record for the Horned Frogs, with 680 points.
She drew attention from five different Texas defenders, including SEC Player of the Year Madison Booker and 2024 Big 12 All-Defensive Team member Shay Holle.
Harmon, the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year in 2023, approached the defensive assignment how she approaches every individual test: It was personal.
“You think you can dribble around, run around, catch the ball and shoot and score like 30 points on me? That’s not gonna happen. So I’m going to make sure that I take it away because I take pride in that side of the game,” she said.
Harmon and the Longhorns did their best to limit the number of touches for Van Lith. That strategy was evident from the beginning as Texas used its full-court press and hard-hedging ball-screen defense to slow her down.
“She embraces the defensive challenge,” Schaefer said of Harmon. “She loves it. She eats it for breakfast.”
Schaefer’s team pressed for all 40 minutes, face-guarding Van Lith and TCU’s guards on every inbound play. The press resulted in seven total turnovers – three five-second violations, one ten-second violation, two live-ball turnovers and an offensive foul on Van Lith.
In pick-and-roll scenarios, Texas’ forwards hedged hard on every screen, determined not to switch and create a mismatch. Stepping up to the point of attack on Van Lith allowed the guards to recover, slow her down and force her to retreat from the basket.
“When me and Rori got into switches,” Holle said, “we did a really good job of switching out hard. Just trying to get the ball out of her hands.”
Van Lith started the game cold. Although she played the entire first half, she scored just eight points on 3-for-10 shooting and had four turnovers as TCU trailed 23-21 at the break. All eight of her points came in the second quarter.
“A dogfight is the way to go out and I thought we put up a fight,” Van Lith said. “Texas played really well, congrats to them.”
Wesley Branch is a student in the University of Georgia’s Sports Media Certificate program.
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