Texas Women’s Basketball enters the SEC quarterfinal with Alabama — and a bracket twist waiting on the other side
In Greenville, South Carolina, texas women’s basketball opens its SEC Tournament run with a familiar opponent: Alabama, the same team Texas faced to close the regular season. The quarterfinal matchup at Bon Secours Wellness Arena arrives five days after Texas finished the regular season with a 72-65 win at Alabama.
Texas Women’s Basketball draws Alabama again, this time with tournament stakes
Texas (28-3) has been placed opposite Alabama (23-9) in the SEC Tournament quarterfinal, setting up an immediate postseason rematch. As the No. 3 seed in the SEC bracket, Texas received a double-bye and did not play in the tournament’s first two days.
Alabama entered the quarterfinal as the No. 11 seed, advancing with two wins: 65-48 over No. 14 Missouri and 76-64 over No. 6 Tennessee. That path puts Alabama into a third game of the week, while Texas begins play with fresh legs but no live tournament reps in Greenville.
What changes after the quarterfinal: the Ole Miss upset reshapes the next round
The bracket beyond the Alabama-Texas game shifted sharply when seventh-seeded Ole Miss defeated No. 2 Vanderbilt 89-78 in its quarterfinal. The winner of Alabama vs. Texas will advance to face Ole Miss next.
Ole Miss built a massive early lead, jumping ahead 23-2 and carrying a 32-point advantage into halftime. Vanderbilt narrowed the gap to as close as 11 in the final frame, but Ole Miss held on to complete the upset.
Fifth-year senior Latasha Lattimore scored a season-high 28 points with eight rebounds for Ole Miss (23-10). Cotie McMahon added 27 points. The game also included a late flashpoint: Vanderbilt head coach Shea Ralph was assessed two technical fouls and ejected with 9: 25 left after arguing the fourth foul call on guard Mikayla Blakes.
For Texas, the immediate focus remains Alabama, but the road forward is already defined. Both Alabama and Texas defeated Ole Miss during the regular season, and those games were decided by a combined four points, underscoring how tight that potential next matchup could be if texas women’s basketball advances.
Vic Schaefer’s postseason frame: “We’ve seen it all”
Texas head coach Vic Schaefer has pointed to Texas’ regular-season schedule as preparation for moments like this. With 15 games against -ranked opponents in the regular season, Schaefer said the team is battle tested and ready to take on the postseason, summarizing the mindset with: “We’ve seen it all. ”
Beyond the SEC bracket, NCAA Tournament positioning is part of the backdrop in Greenville. The NCAA Tournament selection committee recently projected Texas and Vanderbilt as its No. 4 and No. 5 overall seeds. Vanderbilt’s loss to Ole Miss changes what the Commodores can accomplish in the SEC Tournament and was framed as damaging to Vanderbilt’s pursuit of a No. 1 seed, while Texas entered the week already positioned ahead of Vanderbilt in that projection.
For texas women’s basketball, the immediate equation is straightforward: handle the rematch in the SEC quarterfinal, then prepare for Ole Miss in a tournament environment that has already produced a stunning result.
