Earlier this month, Texas women’s basketball represented the United States internationally at the 2025 GLOBL JAM in Toronto, Canada.
Along with the Longhorns, the women’s team competed in a top under-23 competition and included the national teams of Canada, Brazil, and Puerto Rico. Texas defeated host Canada in the final after going 3-1 in Toronto and being undefeated in round robin play.
Despite the loss at the end of the week, head coach Vic Schaefer described how the Longhorns’ prolonged time together during the trip improved team bonding off the court.
Schaefer stated in an interview that one of the topics we discussed in the locker room following the game was our relationships, encouraging one another, supporting one another, and being a good teammate.A vacation like this, in my opinion, really enables you to work on that.
The 2025-26 team’s efforts to foster camaraderie began with GLOBL JAM.
The Longhorns made an immediate impression on the court when they defeated Puerto Rico 85-45 to begin their campaign. Texas made its opponents shoot 16 of 57 from the field and led to 34 turnovers, which allowed the Longhorns to score 36 points. Texas’ bench scored just over half of its points.
Senior center Kyla Oldacre scored 17 points and pulled down 11 rebounds in just under nine minutes before leaving the game due to an injury that prevented her from playing the rest of the tournament. Vic Schaefer, the head coach, discussed her absence after the Canada defeat.
I’m happy of our squad because, Schaefer said, the loss of Kyla had a significant impact on some of our rotations at 4 and 5, forcing me to play some youngsters at 5 who weren’t familiar with the plays. It’s a learning process for all of us, I believe.
In their first game in the burnt orange, the Longhorns’ four new players—freshman guard Aaliyah Crump, transfers senior guard Ashton Judd (Missouri), power forward Breya Cunningham (Arizona), and senior forward Teya Sidberry (Utah and Boston College)—all saw good minutes. In particular, Cunningham had to step up in the absence of Oldacre.
The team led for 39 minutes and 22 seconds of game time after defeating Canada 70-61 on August 14 after thrashing Puerto Rico. With two and a half minutes remaining, the Canadians closed the gap to seven, but the Longhorns maintained their lead thanks to a solid team effort.
Texas returned from a day off with a resounding 90-54 victory over Brazil. Bryanna Preston, the sophomore who leads in scoring with 22 points on 9 of 14 shooting, and Rori Harmon, the starting guard graduate, combined for 14 assists.
Canada played Texas again on August 17 and, in contrast to earlier in the week, defeated Texas 72-65 after overcoming a halftime deficit.
Canada hit 7 for 21 from beyond the arc, while Texas went 3-for-15. Compared to their 30.1% shooting from three last season, the Longhorns struggled throughout the tournament, shooting only 26%.
After the game, Schaefer remarked, “Give Canada credit; I thought they played really well tonight. We were undisciplined, we had numerous breakdowns, and they made us pay.”
Even though Schaefer noted that Canada is clearly highly good, playing them twice away from home could be beneficial for the team going forward.
The Longhorns have time to align themselves before their second run in the SEC, which is months before the season begins.
According to Schaefer, we will develop and gain knowledge from it.
