Women’s Basketball: No. 12 TCU survives late game scare against Kansas

Number 12 ranked TCU women’s basketball survived some late game excitement in a 79-77 win at home over Kansas on Thursday. The Frogs held a five point lead with five seconds left before clock errors, questionable offensive fouls, and turnovers gave Kansas a chance to tie the game with under a second left. Thankfully for Frog fans, the Jayhawks failed to get a shot off in time and TCU picked up their NCAA leading 38th straight home win. An excellent offensive outing from the Horned Frogs led to the win and moved TCU to 8-1 in Big 12 play and 20-2 on the season overall. The Frogs are now tied for first place in the Big 12 with Baylor and are a game and a half ahead of the third and fourth place teams. 

Olivia Miles led the Frogs in scoring with 20 points along with four rebounds, six assists and two steals. Miles scored with her usual level of efficiency, needing just 12 field goal attempts to score her points shooting 58.3% from the field and 40% from three. Marta Suarez had a strong game against the Jayhawks with 13 points, eight rebounds, one assist and one steal. The most encouraging statistic for Frog fans was that Suarez knocked down two of four attempts from three. TCU needs more secondary scoring and Suarez finding her three point shot again would significantly raise the ceiling of this team. Donovyn Hunter shot the ball very well against the Jayhawks with 15 points, two rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block. Hunter knocked down over 50% of her shots from the field and 60% of her shots from three. Clara Bielefeld had her best game as a Frog off the bench with nine points and three rebounds. The true freshman made all three of her field goal attempts and knocked down a clutch three down the stretch in the fourth quarter to help seal the win. Veronica Sheffey continues to impress with her scoring ability off the bench with six points, one rebound, two assists and one steal. 

TCU had a great game shooting the ball, knocking down 50% of their shots from the field and 50% of their shots from three point range. TCU did a solid job of getting to the free throw line with 19 attempts from the stripe as a team. For the second straight game, TCU did a much better job of limiting turnovers with just 15 as a team compared to 17 total assists. The Horned Frogs did struggle with rebounding in this game as the Jayhawks won the battle on the boards with 33 rebounds compared to just 26 from TCU. Kansas collected 11 offensive rebounds which led to them staying in the game despite the offensive performance from TCU. The Jayhawks had significantly more points in the paint with 46 compared to 30 from the Frogs. Kansas struggled to shoot the three against the Frogs but kept up with TCU’s offense because of their scoring in the paint. Kansas was the more physical team and the Frogs will need to play bigger to keep winning down the stretch.

TCU has a tough test ahead of them in their next game, they travel to Lubbock for a matchup against number 21 ranked Texas Tech. The Lady Raiders have lost three of their last four games but are 20-3 on the season with plenty of quality wins on the resume. Bailey Maupin and Snudda Collins are two players to watch for Texas Tech as they are both averaging 15 points per game on just under 45% shooting from the field.