TCU Women Lose To Texas
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AUSTIN, Texas – An extended second-half scoring drought plagued the TCU women’s basketball team in a 62-50 loss at Texas on Tuesday evening at Frank Erwin Center.
The Horned Frogs (15-13, 6-10) held a seven-point lead over the Longhorns at the half and maintained the seven-point advantage at the 16:16 mark of the second half before going scoreless for over seven minutes as Texas used a 13-0 run to take a 43-37 lead with 9:48 remaining.
TCU, which led the contest for over 20 minutes, snapped the skid when junior guard Natalie Ventress connected on a jumper at the 8:58 mark, and would come back to within four points with 8:16 left following a Donielle Breaux 3-pointer, but Texas would pull away from there.
Ventress led three Horned Frogs with 14 points off a 6-of-14 effort from the field, followed by junior forward Chelsea Prince (12 points) and sophomore guard Zahna Medley (10 points).
Senior center Latricia Lovings was dominant defensively, grabbing 10 rebounds to go with
six blocks and four steals in 35 minutes of action.
Trailing 14-10 at the 11:55 mark of the first half, Ventress caught fire with seven-straight points, including a 3-pointer to give the Frogs a 17-16 edge.
Following back-to-back buckets from sophomore guard Veja Hamilton, Lovings registered a 3-point play and Prince followed with a steal and dish to Ventress for her second 3-pointer to put TCU up 27-20.
Prince struck again on the next possession with a steal and uncontested layup to give TCU its largest lead of nine points and round out the Frogs’ 19-6 run with 4:44 left to play in the first half.
With 14 seconds left in the opening half, Prince sank a jumper off the glass and Lovings swatted 6-foot-7 Texas center Imani McGee-Stafford’s attempt with two seconds remaining for the 33-26 halftime lead.
The Frogs shot 48 percent (14-of-29) from the field in the first 20 minutes but managed to shoot just 26 percent (8-of-31) for the remainder of the contest, while holding Texas to a 38-percent (24-of-63) effort.
TCU struggled with Texas’ size, dropping the rebound battle by a 55-29 margin as the Longhorns scored 15 second-chance points.
TCU forced 19 Texas turnovers compared to 13 Frog miscues and registered 12 steals.
The Horned Frogs will play host to Oklahoma in the home finale at 7 p.m., on Saturday at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum, where TCU will recognize its seniors.
