Three observations from the Texas women's basketball team's blowout of UT-Arlington

Taylor Jones and Rori Harmon made a lot more shots than they missed Tuesday night as No. 11 Texas rolled to a 110-64 win over UT-Arlington at Moody Center.

Jones and Harmon combined for 41 points in a rout that featured four additional Longhorns scoring at least 10 points. Jones shot 10-for-12 from the field. Harmon was 9-of-12.

Texas (3-0) moved up two spots in this week's Associated Press poll. The Longhorns have yet to trail this season, and their average margin of victory against Southern, Liberty and UTA has been 36.3 points.

"Our focus is always going to be defense," said guard Shay Holle, who scored a career-high 17 points. "We've scored a lot of points in the past three games, but I think we haven't always been happy with our defense. like our points allowed. That's always going to be our focus."

Texas will return to Moody Center on Sunday against Louisiana Tech (2-0).

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

Better as a starter or off the bench?

Texas started Jones and the 6-foot-4 forward quickly proved to be a mismatch for a UTA team whose tallest starter was 6-foot-2 Adéla Válková. By the time Jones subbed out with 1:57 left in the first quarter, she was outscoring UTA by a 14-9 margin. She had made seven of her nine shots at that point; the Lady Mavs were 5-of-10.

Jones came off the bench in the first two games, but head coach Vic Schaefer's lineup decision wasn't a surprise. Much like last season, Jones and Khadija Faye are interchangeable at center. Jones still averaged 21.5 minutes, 9.5 rebounds and a team-high 16 points over those two games.

So is Texas better served using Jones in its starting lineup? Or as a matchup problem off the bench?

"We started Hadi the first two games and I like bringing Taylor off the bench," Schaefer said. "Hadi does a great job defensively and is a pretty good help defender, but Taylor's been playing well. She's been doing a lot of good things. And again, I thought tonight she got us off to a really good start."

Schaefer said afterward that Faye was sick ahead of the game. Faye still played 11 minutes and scored 10 points.

Hard work pays off for Harmon

Tuesday may have been one of Harmon's best shooting performances as a Longhorn. Using her quickness to consistently cut through the UTA defense, the point guard matched her career-high for field goals in a single game. It was the third time in her career that Harmon made nine field goals. But against Iowa State in 2022, those nine makes were made on 14 tries. She went 9-for-21 against that same Iowa State team last season.

After shooting 38.2% over her first two seasons, Harmon focused on improving her shooting this offseason. She told reporters this fall that she'd try to get up between 200 and 400 shots during hourlong workouts outside of Texas practices.

"That is something I have been working on pretty much all summer," Harmon said. "I still work on it an hour before practice or time after practice, so it's nice to see the work is paying off."

Considering the stakes, it's hard to argue that Harmon shot better than she did in the 2022 Big 12 championship game. She went 8-for-10 as the Longhorns claimed the crown with a 67-58 win.

Codio, Herron earn increased playing time

As it emptied its bench at the end of its season-opening wins over Southern and Liberty, Texas had Jordana Codio and Tionna Herron make their first appearances of those games. On Tuesday, both players factored into the team's first-half plans.

Codio was on the floor at the start of the second quarter and the versatile guard grabbed a defensive rebound. Herron played the final 4½ minutes of the first half and scored twice off nice feeds by Shaylee Gonzales and Madison Booker.

Neither Codio nor Herron played last season. Codio redshirted while rehabbing her third knee surgery. Herron was a member of Kentucky's program last season, but was recovering from having open heart surgery.

They said it: Texas continued to struggle with free throws

Schaefer: "When you get into a pressure situation, which we haven't been in yet, it's that see it, feel it, trust it. You've got to see it, feel it, trust it. It's like the golfer standing over a shot from 175 in a tied match on the 18th hole and he's literally playing for a million-and-a-half dollars if he wins the golf tournament. Well, those guys don't get up there and their knees aren't shaking and they're going, 'Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.' No, they're standing over that golf ball going see it, feel it, trust it. They've made that shot a million times. They've held that seven iron, six iron, whatever iron that is a million times. See it, feel it, trust it. That's what you got to do. We'll get there. I don't really think this is going to be something we're going to be talking about in the month. I sure hope not."

Texas made just five of its 14 free throws. The Longhorns are shooting just 47.3% on free throws this season and haven't hit 65% in any of its three games.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Ranked Texas team never trails in nonconference basketball game