TCU Women Lose Big 12 Opener

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FORT WORTH, Texas – The TCU women’s basketball team couldn’t overcome a hot shooting Iowa State squad on Thursday evening in its Big 12 opener, falling to the 10th-ranked Cyclones by a score of 71-49 at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.

The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for the Horned Frogs to drop to 9-4 overall, while Iowa State remained unbeaten with a 12-0 mark.

Sophomore guard Zahna Medley poured on a team-best 22 points off a 7-of-16 effort from the field and 7-of-8 mark from the free-throw line while handing out three assists against just one turnover in 35 minutes. Medley reached the 20-point threshold for the fifth time this season and tallied the most points since registering 27 on Nov. 27.

Junior forward Chelsea Prince made her second start of the season for TCU, posting nine points and a season-best four steals, while freshman forward Jada Butts added eight points, four rebounds and two steals in a career-high 27 minutes.

Senior center Latricia Lovings was stellar on the defensive side of the ball, swatting seven shots to go with nine rebounds and two steals. Lovings held Iowa State’s Hallie Christofferson to 10 points and just two field goals in the paint, as the six-foot-three senior entered the contest averaging 21.8 points per game.

The contest was back-and-forth for much of the first half, despite Iowa State’s 10 3-pointers in the opening 20 minutes.

Medley was integral in the first half as the Horned Frogs weathered the storm from the 3-point line, firing a pass to Butts in the paint before burying a baseline jumper to give TCU a 20-18 advantage at the 6:53 mark.

After Iowa State’s sixth trey of the half, Medley answered by dishing to a

streaking Lovings, who knocked down a jumper to push TCU out to a 25-21 lead with 5:10 left.

Iowa State’s Nicole Blaskowsky connected on her third and fourth trifectas of the first half as the Cyclones regained a 30-25 lead before Medley answered with a long-range bucket of her own and followed up by taking her defender one-and-one to the basket to knot the game at 30 points apiece with just over two minutes left.

Blaskowsky wasn’t finished however, sinking two more 3-pointers in the final minute as the Cyclones held a 38-30 advantage at the break.

The Frogs struggled to find the bottom of the net in the second half but managed to cut the Iowa State lead back down to nine points when Medley took the inbounds pass and went coast-to-coast for an old-fashioned 3-point play with 8:23 remaining.

With TCU trailing 56-46 with under four minutes left, the Cyclones’ Christofferson drained her first 3-poiner of the night and Blaskowsky followed with a steal and 3-point play as Iowa State pulled away.

TCU forced a season high in turnovers for the Cyclones with 18, while Iowa State shot 38 percent (21-of-56) from the field, with 15 of the 21 field goals coming from distance.

The Horned Frogs will look to bounce back with its first Big 12 road contest of the season at Texas Tech at 1 p.m., on Sunday.

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