Texas moved to 9-0 off of star point guard Rori Harmon etching her name into the Longhorns record book.
Point guard Rori Harmon became the all-time assists leader for Texas Longhorns women's basketball as the No. 2-ranked Horns defeated the No. 11 North Carolina Tar Heels 79-64 on Thursday at the ACC/SEC Challenge in Austin to stay undefeated on the season.
Harmon - who now has 789 assists and counting - finished the game with six points, eight assists and three steals. Her third takeaway also propelled the grad senior up the record books as she moved into fourth all-time in Texas history with 304 steals in her career, passing Esoleta Whaley (1980-84).
Jordan Lee poured in a career-high 22 points and Madison Booker chipped in with 18 points and six rebounds. Texas (9-0) connected on over 44 percent of its three-point field goals (4/9) while limiting UNC (8-2) to just 2/11 (18.2 percent) shooting from behind the arc.
The Longhorns have struggled recently with availability due to injuries, but head coach Vic Schaefer commended his team for staying resilient and competing hard against a difficult opponent.
"At the end of the day, I couldn't be prouder of a bunch of kids right now that are really having to do something that's extremely hard in that we have very little bench, very little depth ... And that's what makes our team so special," Schaefer said after the win.
What depth Texas did have showed up on Thursday with the Longhorns scoring 27 bench points. The victory is Texas' fourth ranked win of the season after posting wins over No. 24 Richmond, No. 3 UCLA and No. 2 South Carolina earlier in the year.
"I tell them all the time," Schaefer added, "the one thing you can count on in life is adversity. It's coming, and we got it right now. And all they do is they put their head down and go to work and they have met it head on. It's just amazing, really."
Along with Lee's scoring and Harmon's record-breaking facilitating, the Longhorn defense was especially impactful against the Tar Heels. Texas closed out the first half by forcing double-digits turnovers and a scoreless streak of over four minutes. UNC turned it over 20 times for the game and Texas capitalized with 24 points off those turnovers.
It's Texas' 31st straight win inside the Moody Center, improving the team's overall tally to 56-5 at home all-time.
The Longhorns' next opportunity to defend home court comes against Prairie View A&M on Sunday, Dec. 7. SEC play begins with Texas traveling to face Missouri on Jan. 1.