TCU Women Fall At No. 13 West Virginia
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Zahna Medley and Donielle Breaux combined for 38 points but the TCU women’s basketball team fell in the closing moments to No. 13 West Virginia by a score of 61-57 on Sunday afternoon at WVU Coliseum.
Medley led all scorers with 23 points in 38 minutes, going 8-of-18 from the field while matching her season high with five 3-pointers, marking the most since Nov. 27.
Breaux caught fire down the stretch in the second half and finished with 15 points off a 6-of-14 effort from the field while matching Medley for the team lead with three assists.
The Horned Frogs (14-11, 5-8) found a rhythm midway through the first half, building their largest lead of 13 points (19-6) with 8:42 remaining.
Medley, Natalie Ventress and Breaux ignited the run with back-to-back-to-back buckets from long range to put TCU ahead 15-4 at the 11:37 mark.
Sophomore forward Caitlin Diaz answered WVU’s third field goal of
the contest with a jumper from the baseline and fellow sophomore Veja Hamilton put the Frogs ahead by 13 with a drive and layup.
The Mountaineers (22-3, 11-2) were able to use their defense to generate points, forcing multiple turnovers en route to a 10-0 run to trim the TCU advantage down to 19-16 with just over five minutes to play in the opening half.
The two teams would go back and forth as the Mountaineers eventually tied the contest before Medley connected on her second 3-pointer with just under a minute remaining en route to a 28-27 lead at the break.
WVU continued its momentum into the second half and built its largest lead at six points at the 14:03 mark.
Medley sank a pair of free throws, accounting for all of TCU’s first eight points in the final half, to trim the deficit back down to four when Breaux took over, knocking down a 3-pointer before converting a 3-point play to tie the contest at 42 points apiece with just over 10 minutes to play.
Breaux answered the next Mountaineer bucket by bringing the ball down the court and pulling up at the free-throw line for a jumper to knot things back up at 44-44 as the junior guard rattled off her eighth-straight point.
After Medley answered a West Virginia 3-pointer with one of her own to tie the game with 7:07 remaining, the Mountaineers struck again from long range to push back ahead by three with 5:25 to play.
Senior center Latricia Lovings converted back-to-back layups to keep TCU within one with just 1:33 left, but West Virginia’s Linda Stepney managed to sink a layup in traffic as the shot clock expired and the Frogs wouldn’t be able to convert on the offensive end.
The Frogs shot 39 percent (23-of-59) from the field while sinking eight treys on 23 attempts, but managed to get to the line just three times compared to WVU’s 22 free-throw attempts.
TCU narrowly dropped the battle on the glass by a 40-36 margin while WVU scored 20 points on 14 Frog turnovers.
The Frogs return home to take on Kansas State at 7 p.m., on Wednesday in the annual “Frogs for the Cure” contest at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.
