TCU Drops Lamar Sunday Afternoon 73-59
{fshare id=1962}
FORT WORTH, Texas – Some hot shooting Sunday afternoon propelled TCU to a 73-59 victory over Lamar at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.
With the win, the Horned Frogs have now won three-straight and evened their record to 4-4 overall. The Purple and White have also now won three-straight over the Cardinals as the two teams met for the first time since 2003 Sunday.
The Frogs, who led by as many as 20, shot an impressive 51.9 percent from the floor Sunday afternoon, including 53.8 percent from behind the line on 7-of-13 shooting. Most of those buckets came off assists as TCU tallied 21 assists on the day, marking the most by a Horned Frog squad since the Purple and White posted 22 against Air Force last season.
TCU was just as impressive on the defensive end of the court, forcing the Cardinals into 22 turnovers, while recording 11 steals, which included three apiece by Antoinette Thompson, Whitney Williams and Briesha Wynn, respectively.
For a majority of the day, the Frogs’ bench did most of the damage, outscoring Lamar, 34-12. Chelsea Prince led the TCU attack with a new career-high of 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting, including eight during the second half Sunday. Junior’s Delisa Gross and Whitney Williams both tallied 11 points apiece on 4-of-6 shooting from the floor, respectively. Williams had a solid all-around day, dishing the ball to teammates a game-high six times.
Monique Whittaker and Kalis Loyd led Lamar as the two combined for 36 of the Cardinals 59 points. Loyd also recorded eight boards in the loss, which moved Lamar to 5-5 on the season.
The Cardinals would cut the halftime deficit to 12, but the Frogs answered on four-straight points, including a beautiful reverse layup by Williams off a look ahead by Prince to make the score 46-30.
Williams knocked down a deep trey to halt a mini Lamar run and push the Frogs back up by 15 at the 15:06 mark, but the Cardinals continued to battle until Wynn found a wide-open Latricia Lovings who powered it home. Prince would score down low the next trip down the court and the Horned Frogs cruised to a 20-point lead at the 12:03 mark of the second half.
Lamar would cut into the Frog lead, pulling within 13 at the 5:51 mark, but Prince and Lovings both scored on layups down low to calm the waters. Thompson scored a layup with a little over a minute to go in the game and the Frogs were able to close out the Cardinals Sunday, winning 73-59.
The Frogs got right to work on the defensive end of the court during the early stages of the game as Williams stole the rock from Lamar and TCU forced a traveling call the next trip down the court. Natalie Ventress opened the game drilling two jumpers to give the Purple and White an early 4-3 lead.
The two teams would trade possessions the next couple of trips down the court and TCU held a 12-11 lead at the 10-minute mark of the first half until Williams dialed it up from deep off an assist by Meagan Henson. Ventress went back door off a dish from Wynn and the Frogs on a 11-0 run regained the lead at 26-16 with a little over 5 minutes remaining the in the opening frame. Prince scored five-straight points during the run, including a tough three-point play down low.
The Frogs pushed their lead to 32-22 with some nifty ball movement, scoring seven-straight to wind down the half. Henson then found Gross deep in the lane who proceeded to make a nice move and loop the ball over the top of the rim to give TCU a 40-26 lead at intermission.
TCU will face defending National Champion Texas A&M on Sunday, Dec. 11. Tip-off is set for 2:00 p.m. CT and will be shown live on CBS Sports Network.
