After beating Houston, No. 5 Texas pulls into a second-place tie in the Big 12 standings
As DeYona Gaston enjoyed a happy homecoming on Wednesday night, Texas made a little movement in the Big 12 standings.
Gaston scored a season-high 21 points as No. 5 Texas rolled to an 82-66 win at Houston. On Monday, the senior forward was asked during a media availability if she wanted to have a breakout performance in a gym that is just 20 miles away from her hometown of Pearland. Gaston told reporters that "I have to go off in front of my friends and family, show them what I can really do."
A few days later, Gaston fell just three points shy of her career-high scoring total. Additionally, she grabbed eight rebounds.
Texas also got 23 points, seven rebounds and four assists on Wednesday from freshman guard Madison Booker, who was recently one of the 30 players named to the Naismith Trophy midseason team. The 16-point victory was the 400th win in UT coach Vic Schaefer's career.
With the win, Texas (23-3) improved to 10-3 in Big 12 play. But the Longhorns failed to cut into No. 23 Oklahoma's lead in the conference's championship race. Oklahoma (18-6, 12-1) beat Baylor on Wednesday.
The Longhorns, though, did pull into a second-place tie with No. 7 Kansas State, which was beaten in double overtime by an Iowa State team that visits Texas this weekend. No. 24 West Virginia has also won 10 of its 13 conference games.
Each of those teams has five games left in the regular season. Texas must travel to Oklahoma on Feb. 28.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas beats Houston basketball team as Big 12 title race heats up
