GREENVILLE, S.C. — On Sunday afternoon, Texas women’s basketball and South Carolina will reunite in the SEC Tournament’s championship game.

South Carolina is looking to win its 10th SEC Tournament championship since 2015. Having been the Big 12’s best in 2022 and 2024, Texas is playing for its third conference tournament title under head coach Vic Schaefer.

Stay tuned for live updates.

The Longhorns scored 20 of this game’s first 25 points and will take a 1-point lead into the second quarter. Leading the Longhorns was sophomore forward Justice Carlton, who outscored the Gamecocks by herself. While scoring 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting, Carlton also recorded three rebounds and three assists.

Carlton’s quick start came less than 24 hours after she played just four minutes in the second half of an 85-68 win over Ole Miss.

South Carolina shot just 4-for-13 from the field over this afternoon’s first 10 minutes. Over its first 14 games against ranked teams this season, South Carolina had outscored its opponents by an average of 4.2 points in the first quarter.

Fueled by Justice Carlton, Texas has jumped out to a 14-0 lead in South Carolina. Carlton already has scored six points, and the sophomore forward assisted teammate Breya Cunningham on the game’s first basket and set up another UT score by drawing an offensive foul. Carlton has also recorded a steal.

Texas has made its first seven shots this afternoon. South Carolina has called an early timeout after a start that included five turnovers and just one field-goal attempt.

Where: Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C.

PROVO — Robert Wright III wasn’t one of the four seniors honored in BYU’s regular-season finale Saturday night.

But if it was his final time playing in the Marriott Center — and in an era of the transfer portal that opens up and NBA-like free agency every offseason, you can never count that out — then the former All-Big 12 freshman at Baylor was going to make it memorable.

How about a top-10 victory, for good measure?

Wright scored 23 of his 27 points in the second half to go with six rebounds and two assists; and Kennard Davis Jr. drained the final go-ahead 3-pointer with 1 minuted, 34 seconds remaining as BYU snapped a three-game losing skid with a 82-76 win over No. 10 Texas Tech in front of a sold-out crowd at the Marriott Center.

AJ Dybantsa added 21 points, six rebounds and four assists in what most assume to be the future NBA draft lottery pick’s final game in Provo, and Davis finished with 16 points for the Cougars (21-10, 9-9 Big 12).

Christian Anderson poured in 23 points, four rebounds and nine assists for Texas Tech; and Donovan Atwell added 23 points and six rebounds for the Red Raiders (22-9, 12-6 Big 12).

Jaylen Petty scored 14 points for Texas Tech, which made 16 3-pointers — but just 4-of-16 in the second half.

That’s when Wright to work, converting 7-of-10 field goals and all nine of his free-throw attempts as BYU rallied from as much as a 13-point deficit in the first half to help the Cougars to their first win over Texas Tech since Dec. 17, 1993.

With little to play for in the Big 12 Tournament beyond pride and a sendoff for four seniors, including injured star Richie Saunders, Texas Tech opened the regular-season finale with more of it.

Anderson dropped in five 3-pointers and six assists in the first half, and the Red Raiders shot 12-of-19 from deep to lead by as much as 13 before the break.

After a short run from BYU, Donovan Atwell hit Texas Tech’s eighth triple out of a media timeout, and Anderson added another of the Red Raiders’ 12 first-half 3-pointers to stretch the lead back to 37-27 en route to a 46-38 halftime advantage.

Davis had 13 points, including three of BYU’s five 3-pointers before the break; and Dybantsa added 10 points, three rebounds and two assists on 4-of-14 shooting for the Cougars before halftime.

BYU didn’t commit a turnover until Josiah Moseley’s steal with 15:52 remaining, and Wright capped a 13-6 run out of halftime to bring the Cougars all the way back within 52-51 a minute later.

Buoyed by a defense — there’s that word that seemed far-too-unfamiliar at times during the recent stretch of three-straight losses, or eight in the past 11 games — that held the Red Raiders to 2-of-6 shooting from the perimeter, Dybantsa converted a 3-point play to give BYU its first lead of the half, 58-57 with 11:23 remaining.

Wright scored 6 straight points, Dybantsa added 4 in a row, and Keita capped a 14-2 run that lifted the Cougars to their largest lead of the game, 74-66, with a 14-2 run with 4:42 remaining.

This story will be updated.

Tuesday, a Georgia jury reinforced a growing legal reality: Accountability in school shootings may not end with the shooter. Texans should take note.

Colin Gray, 55, faces up to 180 years in prison after a Barrow County jury found him guilty on more than two dozen counts, including second-degree murder. Prosecutors said he gave his son, Colt Gray, access to a semi-automatic rifle despite documented warning signs, including a prior law enforcement investigation into online threats attributed to the teen. Colt Gray is alleged to have killed two classmates and two teachers and wounded nine others at Georgia’s Apalachee High School in September 2024.

This is not the first time a jury has drawn that conclusion. In 2024, James and Jennifer Crumbley became the first parents in the United States convicted of involuntary manslaughter after their son carried out the Oxford High School shooting in Michigan. The Georgia verdict suggests the Michigan case was not an anomaly.

For decades, the national debate over school shootings has focused almost exclusively on the person who pulled the trigger, the weapon used or institutional failures. These verdicts shift attention upstream.

The pattern is consistent: leakage of threats, fixation on prior attackers, escalating instability — and access to firearms. According to the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center, 76% of school attackers obtained their firearms from their home or from a relative’s home. Most often the weapons were legally owned. But when specific threats emerge and parents are formally notified of serious concerns, access can determine whether a crisis is contained or catastrophic.

In both the Crumbley and Gray cases, authorities had documented troubling behavior. Parents were notified of credible warning signs.

I have studied this issue closely for nearly a decade — not as an abstraction, but as a father with two daughters in school at the time of the Parkland High School shooting in Florida in February 2018. That proximity drove me to speak with law enforcement, review research on targeted school violence and reach out to experts online.

I write this as a dyed-in-the-wool supporter of the Second Amendment. To be clear, responsible citizens have the right to defend themselves and their families. But rights do not erase responsibility.

Two verdicts in two states do not create a nationwide consensus. But they suggest that when documented warnings and weapon access intersect, juries may treat the resulting harm as foreseeable.

This is not a call for new laws, nor does it mean every parent of a struggling teenager faces criminal exposure. The line appears narrower: credible threats, formal warnings, unchanged access.

For Texans, where gun ownership rates are among the highest in the nation, that should matter.

After Uvalde, Texas focused on campus security. House Bill 3, passed in 2023, requires an armed security officer on every public school campus and increased funding for school safety. Many North Texas districts strengthened School Resource Officer programs and tightened controlled-entry protocols, adding layers between the parking lot and the classroom.

Those measures harden schools. These verdicts clarify responsibility inside the home.

The Second Amendment grants rights. It does not insulate negligence.

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