Texas Women's Basketball: Gonzales leads short-handed Longhorns past Bearcats

Texas Women's Basketball took on the Cincinnati Bearcats at the Moody Center on Saturday afternoon. After losing to the Oklahoma Sooners at home Wednesday night, they needed to get back on track with a win.

The short-handed Longhorns beat the Cincinnati Bearcats 67-50 on Saturday afternoon. Senior guard Shaylee Gonzales took over for Freshman forward Madison Booker at point guard due to a hamstring injury Booker had during Friday's practice. Here are the three takeaways from the Longhorns win over the Bearcats

Texas Women's Basketball vs. Cincinnati Bearcats: 3. Found a way to win without Booker

The Longhorns found a way to win this afternoon without Booker. It was mentioned in the game recap that Booker injured her hamstring at practice on Friday. It forced Schaefer to move Gonzales to the point guard position.

She rose to the occasion in the new role despite not having much experience running the offense. Gonzales finished the game with only one turnover. Hopefully, Booker won't be out any more games, but Gonzales showed Schaefer she can run the offense.

Texas Women's Basketball vs. Cincinnati Bearcats: 2. Aaliyah Moore having a bounce-back game

Another reason the Longhorns beat the Bearcats yesterday afternoon was Junior forward Aaliyah Moore had a better performance today. She learned her mistakes from Wednesday's game against the Sooners when the team watched the highlights on Thursday morning.

Her shot selection was better even though her field goal percentage was identical to Wednesday's game against the Sooners. Moore made eight out of eleven free throws, which helped the team out yesterday.

Texas Women's Basketball vs. Cincinnati Bearcats: 1. Schaefer getting out of his comfort zone

If you don't know Texas women's basketball head coach Vic Schaefer's defensive strategy, he loves his man-to-man and press defense. You will never see him run a zone-style defense unless you watched yesterday's game. With the Longhorns riddled with injuries, they could not afford players to foul out of the game.

So Schaefer had no choice but to run a 3-2 zone defense against the Bearcats. Not one player on Texas got more than three personal fouls yesterday. Sometimes, it helps to break out of your comfort zone to win a conference game short-handed.

The Texas Longhorns' next game is in Waco on Thursday night, a rematch against the Baylor Bears on Feb. 1.

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