TCU Women Upset Texas
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FORT WORTH, Texas – The TCU women’s basketball team dropped Texas by a score of 54-48 in a scrappy effort on Sunday afternoon at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum, marking the program’s first-ever victory over the Longhorns.
The Horned Frogs improved to 12-6 overall and evened their Big 12 record at 3-3, while Texas dropped to 12-6 overall and 3-3 in league play.
TCU stormed out to a 30-18 lead at halftime but failed to score for nearly nine minutes to open the second half as Texas pulled within one before junior guard Natalie Ventress ended the skid with a layup at the 11:22 mark.
Texas kept the momentum, taking its first lead since the game’s opening minute at 33-32 with just over 10 minutes to play to cap a 15-2 run.
Sophomore guard Zahna Medley, who had been held off the scoreboard for the opening 31 minutes, put TCU back in the lead with a 3-point play after going coast-to-coast for a layup.
Junior guard Donielle Breaux increased the TCU advantage to five with a steal and layup at the 8:16 mark, but Texas would bounce back, draining a 3-pointer to knot the contest up at 39 points apiece with 5:05 remaining.
With TCU trailing 45-44 with just over a minute to play, Medley knocked down
her first 3-pointer on her seventh attempt, putting the Frogs back on top by two.
The Longhorns’ Chassidy Fussell converted a layup off an inbounds pass with 37.9 seconds left and was fouled, where the Longhorns grabbed an offensive rebound on her miss. Texas’ Nneka Enemkpali was then fouled and split a pair of shots from the charity stripe to tie the game up at 48.
Medley took the inbounds and raced down the court, finding senior center Latricia Lovings in transition for the layup to put TCU up 50-48 with 28.6 seconds left.
On Texas’ next possession, Lovings swatted the shot attempt, and after an offensive rebound, Medley snagged a pass and converted both free-throws.
Lovings sealed the contest with another block with six seconds left and Ventress knocked down both free throws to close out the TCU victory.
Medley led TCU with 12 points, all coming in the final 9:05 of the contest, while tying a career high with six rebounds and handing out six assists with three steals.
Lovings was presented a tall task on Sunday against Texas’ size in the post and delivered with 10 points, seven blocks and six rebounds in 33 minutes.
Freshman forward Jada Butts earned her first start on Sunday and posted nine points and seven blocks, while Ventress added nine points and five rebounds.
Junior Chelsea Prince made her fourth start of the season, contributing six points, six rebounds and a season-high five steals.
After back-to-back slow starts for the Frogs, TCU kicked off the game with intensity and only trailed during the opening minute.
Medley handed out five assists early on and Butts gave TCU its first double-digit lead with a reverse layup in traffic to go up 21-10 at the 6:52 mark.
Ventress buried a 3-pointer to make it 24-14 with just over four minutes left and Butts converted a putback to round out the first-half scoring as TCU enjoyed a 30-18 lead at the break.
The Frogs outrebounded the much larger Texas squad in the opening 20 minutes by a 24-19 margin while forcing 14 first-half turnovers.
TCU held Texas to just 30-percent shooting (17-of-56) for the game and forced 26 Longhorn turnovers overall, which was one shy of tying a season high.
The Frogs dropped the rebound battle by a narrow 43-37 margin but outscored the Longhorns, 32-14, in the paint.
Imani McGee-Stafford and Brady Sanders led Texas with nine points, while Enemkpali added eight points and 12 rebounds.
TCU returns to action against Oklahoma at 7 p.m., on Saturday in Norman.
