TCU
BYU
Lady Frogs Fall 74-71 to BYU
12/22/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 22, 2001
FORT WORTH, Texas - The TCU Lady Frogs suffered their first home loss of the season on Saturday afternoon at the hands of the BYU Cougars, 74-71, at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. The Frogs are now 7-3 on the season, while the Cougars improved to 8-3.
"BYU made just a couple more plays than we did today," head coach Jeff Mittie said. "That's a good team that we played today. I was proud of the way we came back and played. Our players really wanted the ball down the stretch. We just couldn't get the shots to fall."
The game was close throughout, as neither team managed to pull away. BYU had its largest first-half lead in the final minute at 40-33, until Candace Baldwin drained a three-pointer with four seconds left to make the halftime score 40-36 in favor of the Cougars.
TCU, who had been outrebounded just one time previously (by No. 3 Oklahoma), was outrebounded 19-11 in the first half. Only Sandora Irvin and Ashanti Nix recorded first-half boards for TCU. The Frogs were able to control the glass better in the second half, but BYU still won the rebounding battle 38-32.
BYU jumped out to a nine-point lead with 15:46 left in the contest, but the Frogs were able to battle back and took their first lead of the second stanza at the 3:44-mark on a duck-under move by Kati Safaritova. Safaritova converted the three-point play to give TCU a 70-67 lead. However, BYU moved in front 73-71 with one minute remaining. The Frogs, down by three with just seconds remaining, had one last chance, but a Nix three-pointer with just seven seconds left bounced off the iron and fell away. TCU had just one point in the final 3:44 of the game.
The Cougars were 9-for-22 from three-point range.BYU's Jennifer Leitner had a game-high 18 points and added 12 rebounds. The Frogs had four players in double figures: Safaritova (14), Baldwin (13), Ebony Shaw (10) and Irvin (10). Irvin added 14 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the year.
TCU was attempting to become just the second team in school history to start a season 8-2. The 1997-98 TCU team remains the only one to record eight wins through 10 games.
The Lady Frogs now have a one-week holiday break prior to playing the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks in the Fort Worth Classic at the Fort Worth Convention Center on Sat., Dec. 29 at 5:30 p.m. The TCU men follow with an 8:05 p.m. game against the Baylor Bears.
