No. 12 LSU women hand No. 2 Texas first loss of season

And then there were three.

Only UConn, Vanderbilt and Texas Tech remain unbeaten after Texas suffered its first loss of the season Sunday, falling 70-65 on the road at No. 12 LSU.

The No. 2 Longhorns had matched their best start in program history at 18-0 — a mark set by the 1985-86 undefeated national champions — but couldn’t keep the streak going against the Tigers.

Texas’ Madison Booker scored 24 points on 10-of-16 shooting and Kyla Oldacre added 16 points and 16 rebounds, but the pair combined for just one assist as the rest of the roster failed to find an offensive rhythm. Meanwhile, LSU (16-2) had five players score in double figures, puncturing a defense that entered the day as the third-best in the nation.

Undefeated no more.@LSUwbkb hands Texas its first loss of the season behind a 20-point, five-steal performance from Mikaylah Williams 🐅 pic.twitter.com/q6oPtuiq13

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) January 11, 2026

Texas was outrebounded on the offensive glass for the first time this season, 19-11. Although the Tigers shot five percentage points worse from the field than the Longhorns, they had 10 more field-goal attempts and won the second-chance point battle. Associate head coach Bob Starkey had placed Angel Reese’s “MeBounds” T-shirts by every player’s locker earlier in the week to hammer home the importance of rebounding; that proved to be the decisive factor in LSU’s win.

LSU WBB Associate HC left Angel Reese’s “Mebounds” silhouette t-shirt in the players lockers 👏🏽

“no rebounds, no rings!” pic.twitter.com/vTszBwrxZR

— 🧸. (@drippinnglo) January 7, 2026

Mikaylah Williams led the way for LSU with 20 points, seven rebounds and a team-high five steals and four assists. Her late-clock 3-pointer with 1:20 remaining put LSU up seven and sealed the victory, the Tigers’ first against an AP top-two opponent since 2008.

It was a somewhat confounding defeat for Texas, which had racked up several impressive victories earlier in the season against South Carolina and UCLA, among others, despite being shorthanded. The returns of Bryanna Preston and Ashton Judd from injury were supposed to help the Longhorns’ depth. Instead, Texas couldn’t find minutes for Rori Harmon and Justice Carlton down the stretch — Harmon didn’t play in the fourth and Carlton was on the court for three minutes.

It was a questionable choice to bench Harmon, the Longhorns’ veteran leader, even though she had only two points and three assists, as Texas’ youngsters made poor decisions to close the game.

The probability of going undefeated in an SEC schedule was always low for the Longhorns, with the conference having eight ranked teams, including five in the top seven. Texas’ next game is against the Gamecocks, and its February schedule starts with five consecutive ranked matchups, including one against the still-undefeated Commodores.

Vanderbilt has a similar murderer’s row of a slate that will test its unbeaten record soon.

UConn, meanwhile, has no more ranked teams on its schedule. The Red Raiders face three ranked opponents in the Big 12, but all of them come to Lubbock, Texas.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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