Mississippi native Madison Booker scored herself into the record books and Texas into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament with a dominant showing on Sunday.
Booker, a 2023 graduate of Germantown High School in Gluckstadt, scored 40 points, grabbed eight rebounds, and dished five assists with no turnovers to life No. 1 Texas to a 100-58 win over No. 8 Oregon. The scoring mark makes for the most any Longhorn has ever scored in an NCAA Tournament game, topping the previous mark of 32 set by Clarissa Davis in 1986 and heather Schreiber in 2003.
Sixth-year head coach Vic Schaefer, who previously coached at Mississippi State from 2012-20, guided All-Americans and WNBA players Teaira McCowan and Victoria Vivians while in Starkville. According to him, Booker is another one of those “generational” players.
“She’s a generational talent. They just don’t come around that often,” Schaefer said in his postgame press conference.
With the March Madness moment, Booker became just the fourth player to score 40 points and have at least five rebounds and five assists in the tournament. Others who have done it were Iowa’s Caitlin Clark on three occasions, Stanford’s Candice Wiggins in 2008, and Long Beach State’s Cindy Brown in 1987.
Booker said after the game that Schaefer has been encouraging her to be more aggressive on offense, especially since setting her previous career high with 31 points against Ole Miss in the SEC Tournament.
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“Coach Schaefer has pushed me into taking a big role, being aggressive on the offensive end,” she said.
Booker was recently named an All-American for the third time in as many years after wrapping up prep ball in Mississippi, where she was a McDonald’s All-American and won gold with the USA Basketball National Team for her age group on three occasions.
Texas (33-3) used Sunday’s victory to extend its home winning-streak to 44. A No. 1 seed for the third year in a row, the Longhorns now head to Forth Worth to play the winner of Monday’s game between No. 4 West Virginia and No. 5 Kentucky as they look to make a run to a national title for the first time in 40 years.