TCU Women Hold Off Lamar
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FORT WORTH, Texas – The TCU women’s basketball team held off a late charge for a 72-68 victory over Lamar on Thursday evening at the University Recreation Center to improve to 5-3 overall this season.
Junior guard Zahna Medley led the Horned Frogs with 18 points and a season-high seven assists, while senior guard Natalie Ventress posted 13 points and eight rebounds and fellow senior Chelsea Prince added 11 points.
Junior guard Veja Hamilton enjoyed a productive outing with a career-high eight assists against only three turnovers to go with seven points and seven rebounds.
The Horned Frogs, who led 35-34 at the break, built a 16-point advantage midway through the second half before the Cardinals used a late rally to cut the deficit all the way down to just two points with under a minute to play.
TCU led by 10 points early but went into the break with just a one-point edge after a sloppy first half that saw 17 Frog turnovers.
TCU wasted little time in building its lead back to double digits to kick off the second half, as Medley capped an 11-2 run with her second 3-pointer of the night for a 46-36 advantage at the 15:20 mark.
Senior Donielle Breaux and Ventress would also add long-range buckets to
put the Frogs up to their largest lead of 56-40 with 11:09 remaining in the contest.
Lamar’s defensive pressure would again force the Frogs into sloppy play however, cutting TCU’s lead all the way down to two points with just over three minutes remaining.
TCU would answer with four-straight points off of free-throws for a six-point edge, and Prince kept the lead at six with 1:02 remaining with a pair of free-throws after a dish under the basket from Hamilton.
With TCU clinging to a two-point lead, Medley took the inbounds pass and raced coast-to-coast for a layup with 20 seconds remaining, and Prince would put the finishing touches on the contest with a pair of free-throws with sevens seconds left.
Sophomore center Klara Bradshaw just missed her first double-figure performance of the season with nine points and four rebounds in 13 minutes of action, while Breaux added five points and seven boards.
The Frogs shot 46 percent (21-of-46) from the field and 82 percent (23-of-28) from the charity stripe, while winning the rebound battle by a 42-36 margin.
TCU resumes its five-game homestand against Prairie View A&M at 2 p.m., on Saturday at the University Recreation Center.
