Sarah Graves owes her Texas teammates dinner. It might be the best money the senior guard ever spends.
Given a couple of minutes of run late in a lopsided 77-41 victory over third-seeded Michigan in the Fort Worth Regional 3 championship game on Monday night, Graves did what she always does on the rare occasion the ball makes its way into her hands.
The former walk-on turned scholarship player let it fly.
Graves' long two-pointer — the 37th and 38th
points of her four-year career with the Longhorns — in the waning seconds provided the exclamation point as Texas returned to the Final Four for a second straight season.
The heavily pro-Texas crowd at Dickies Arena — the same crowd that chanted “Put in Sarah” as the Longhorns' lead ballooned in the fourth quarter — erupted as Graves' shot arced over the outstretched arms of Michigan's Olivia Olson and through the net.
“I'm almost at a loss for words,” said Graves, who is from Keller, Texas, about 20 minutes away from the spot where she officially etched out her own little stake of Longhorns lore. “I almost started crying on the court again because looking around me and just being in the present moment and hearing everybody chant your name is a surreal feeling that I’ll never forget.”
This is not exactly the way that Graves expected this run to end. Sure, she knows her supremely talented teammates like Rori Harmon and Madison Booker have what it takes to compete for a national championship. What the finance major didn't figure on was that she would reach cult hero status along the way.
“It’s just hard work and not trying to earn attention,” Graves said. “If you just work and put your head down and give and pour into others. ... I mean, it’s been given back to me. I didn’t try to put the spotlight on myself.”
The players at the end of the bench typically don't. They dutifully do whatever is asked of them during practices, then usually spend the games as hype women (and men) for their more highly regarded teammates. They don't enter the transfer portal. They don't sign name, image and likeness deals. They just try to enjoy the ride.
And perhaps no one has enjoyed this March quite as much as the unassuming Graves, who played all of one minute as a freshman and nine as a sophomore. That number ticked up to 27 during her junior year as Texas found itself on the right side of more blowouts.
Graves has heard coach Vic Schaefer turning around and yelling her name 20 times this season. Still, what happened on Monday night was a little unexpected. Graves thought her last time on the court in an official game would come in the Sweet 16 when she knocked down a pair of free throws in the final seconds against Kentucky.
The only way Graves thought she'd see the floor against the Wolverines is if Texas raced to another huge lead. She wasn't sure the Longhorns would ever get that comfortable, yet as the Texas advantage crept ever larger — with Graves cheering every basket — she knew there was a chance for one last moment, even if it might come at a price well worth paying.
“I mean, I told my teammates that I would owe them dinner if they went up 30, and they did the job,” Graves said. “That’s why I was going so crazy on the bench because I knew I’d get another shot at it.”
With her parents, John and Nicole, watching, Graves briefly found herself in an unusual position: The focus of the Michigan defense. Once she entered with 2:13 remaining, she was hounded by defenders in maize and blue even though her career scoring average is ... 1.1 points per game.
“They were chasing me really hard off the screens,” she said. “I think that I pump faked someone else and I had another person flying at me. So I think Sarah Graves might have made the scouting report. It might be a first.”
And also, likely a last.
While Schaefer is hoping to find another year of eligibility for Graves — believing in essence that those 60 seconds of official game action as a freshman shouldn't really count — the Final Four could be the last time she pulls on a basketball jersey in a meaningful spot for the rest of her life.
A showdown with top-seeded UCLA awaits on Friday night in Phoenix. The odds of it turning into a blowout either way are slim. That's fine by Graves. She is happy to do her thing on the bench, knowing she is in many ways an avatar for the fans who have adopted her as one of their own.
“Like I go over there and take pictures with them and I'm giving them hugs and introducing myself,” she said. “I don’t feel like I’m any different from them, honestly. They probably relate more to me than any of our star All-Americans, so they’re family.”
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AP Sports Writer Schuyler Dixon in Fort Worth contributed to this report.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
