TCU Women Top Kansas
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FORT WORTH, Texas – The TCU women’s basketball team erased an 11-point deficit in the final five minutes to top Kansas by a score of 52-50 in a Big 12 thriller on Wednesday evening at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. The Horned Frogs improved to 11-4 overall and 2-1 in league play.
Trailing by its largest deficit of the night at 11 points with 4:38 remaining, TCU’s Donielle Breaux erupted against her former squad, rattling off 10-straight points to put the Horned Frogs within a point with 2:53 left to play.
Breaux started the run with a jumper and followed on the next possession by knocking down an open 3-pointer from the corner to trim the Kansas advantage to 47-41 with 4:06 remaining.
On the next trip down the floor, Breaux and junior guard Natalie Ventress created a turnover on a trap and Ventress dished to Breaux for the easy layup in transition. After another defensive stop, sophomore guard Zahna Medley found Breaux open again behind the arc for the trey.
With just over a minute to play and trailing by one, Medley found another
Frog open behind the 3-point line, as Ventress drained the trifecta to put TCU ahead 49-48.
Following another defensive stand with under a minute remaining, Medley dribbled to each part of the court looking for a play before finding sophomore guard Veja Hamilton, who knocked down a crucial baseline jumper to put TCU ahead by four with 22 ticks left on the clock.
Senior center Latricia Lovings split a pair of free-throws with seven seconds left to round out TCU’s 15-0 run over more than a five-minute period before Kansas connected on a 3-pointer at the buzzer to close out the contest.
Breaux, who spent her freshman season at Kansas, posted a team-high 14 points off a 6-of-11 effort from the field, including two 3-pointers off four attempts. Breaux posted the most points since a 20-point effort against SMU on Nov. 13.
Lovings registered an all-around performance with eight points, eight rebounds, three blocks, three steals and two assists in 33 minutes. Lovings was able to limit Kansas’ Chelsea Gardner to just eight points after entering the contest averaging nearly 17 points per game.
While scoring just seven points, Medley handed out four assists on the final five buckets to finish with nine helpers, just one shy of a season best.
Ventress finished with eight points and two assists, with each of her 3-pointers giving TCU a lead in the contest.
The Frogs led just once before taking the lead for good, as Ventress connected on her first 3-pointer of the game at the 18:14 mark of the second half to put TCU ahead 22-21.
After Kansas stretched its lead back out to seven, the Frogs charged back as Medley found Breaux and Lovings for layups in transition to close back within one point with 8:31 remaining.
The Jayhawks answered with two 3-pointers and an easy basket in transition to once again pull out to a comfortable margin and took its largest lead of 11 points on a Gardner jumper at the 5:23 mark before TCU’s rally.
TCU scored 20 points by forcing a season-high 24 Kansas turnovers while outscoring Kansas by a 26-18 margin in the paint.
TCU shot 48 percent (11-of-23) from the field in the second half to overcome a 28-percent mark (8-of-29) in the opening 20 minutes.
Kansas’ Natalie Knight led the Jayhawks with a season-best 20 points.
The Horned Frogs return to action at 7 p.m., on Sunday against No. 7 Baylor in Waco.
