TCU Women Lose To West Virginia

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FORT WORTH, Texas – Sophomore guard Zahna Medley rattled off a season-high 29 points as the TCU women’s basketball team dropped a hard-fought 66-62 decision to No. 20 West Virginia on Saturday evening at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.

Medley scored the second-highest total of her career off an 8-of-24 effort from the field, including three 3-pointers, and tied a career high with 10 free throws on 11 attempts.

Junior guard Natalie Ventress scored in double figures for the third-straight game with 15 points, going 5-of-10 from the field, including a 2-of-4 effort from 3-point range.

Senior center Latricia Lovings racked up seven blocks but was only able to play 20 minutes due to foul trouble.

Despite getting outrebounded by a 31-10 margin and Lovings only playing six minutes in the opening half, the Frogs managed to go into the break down just 28-27.

The Horned Frogs (12-9, 3-6) took their first lead of the second half at the 16:43 mark when Chelsea Prince grabbed a steal and went coast-to-coast for a layup to put TCU ahead 35-34.

TCU forced another West Virginia (19-3, 8-2) turnover on the following

possession and Medley drained her third 3-pointer of the contest to push the Frog advantage to 38-34 at the 16:28 mark.

Following a quick flurry of Mountaineer points to fall behind 40-39, Ventress answered with a 3-point bucket and the Frogs maintained their lead over the next three minutes, pushing out to their largest advantage at 52-46 following a steal and layup from junior guard Donielle Breaux with 7:48 remaining.

The Mountaineers grabbed the lead back on a 3-point play from Asya Bussie and connected on a 3-pointer on the next possession to build a five-point advantage at the 4:00 mark.

Medley converted a pair of free throws with just under a minute remaining, and following two WVU misses from the charity stripe, raced down the court for a layup to cut the deficit to just one with 37.6 seconds remaining.

West Virginia would answer with a pair of free throws and the Frogs would be unable to get a shot off on the following possession to seal the game.

TCU held the Mountaineers to a 35-percent effort (21-of-60) from the field and forced 16 turnovers compared to just 11 Frog miscues, while posting 11 blocks and 10 steals.

WVU’s Bussie finished with 19 points and 15 rebounds, highlighted by an 11-of-15 effort from the free-throw line.

The Horned Frogs will take on their third-straight ranked opponent on Wednesday against No. 21/23 Iowa State in Ames.