TCU
BYU
Lady Frogs post win at BYU to end regular season
3/8/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 8, 2008
PROVO, Utah--TCU put the finishing touches on its seventh 20-win campaign in the last eight seasons Saturday with a 72-61 victory over BYU at the Marriott Center. The Lady Frogs clinched the second seed in next week's Mountain West Conference Championships with the win.The Frogs improved to 20-10 overall on the season, including 13-3 in the MWC. The 13 league wins are two more than the program's previous high as a member of the Mountain West. The victory marked TCU's 12th win in its last 14 contests.
Saturday's regular-season-ending matchup was a close affair, as the Frogs led by only four points with under four minutes remaining. The squad came up clutch at the free-throw line in the second half, shooting 20-of-24 from the charity stripe to help claim victory, while it held the Cougars without a field goal for the final 3:19. For the game, TCU went 26-of-33 at the line.
TCU won the rebounding battle with the Cougars, 38-34, but BYU made eight 3-pointers on the evening to boost its cause. The Frogs did win the turnover battle (11-17) and posted a scoring advantage between the team benches (24-8).
Adrianne Ross scored 16 points to lead three TCU players in double figures. Helen Roden totaled 12 points off the bench for the second straight game, while Moneka Knight chipped in 10 points. Lorie Butler-Rayford posted nine points and nine rebounds, just missing out on her fourth double-double of the season, and she added a team-high three assists.
Shawnee Slade led the BYU attack with a double-double featuring game highs of 20 points and 10 rebounds. Mallary Gillespie-Carling totaled 17 points and made 5-of-9 attempts from behind the 3-point arc on the evening.
Leading by two points at the half, 32-30, TCU slowly built a six-point lead on the strength of some aggressive play resulting in six trips to the charity stripe in the first four minutes of the second frame. Butler-Rayford and Ross combined to hit 5-of-6 free throws to put the Frogs up, 39-33. The lead increased to 11 points as the run hit eight straight TCU points on buckets by Roden and Ross. Ross' shot came from behind the arc to put her team up 44-33.
BYU cut the lead to only four points with under four minutes remaining thanks to a 6-0 run, but the Frog defense tightened with the score 63-59. Knight, Roden and Ross each sank shots from the line, while Roden added a jumper from the baseline with only 51 second left.
The two teams were locked in a tight battle during a first half featuring four ties and eight lead changes. TCU led by as many as five points on several occasions, but the Cougars kept it close with a strong shooting effort. BYU hit six of its first eight 3-point attempts, and held a one-point lead with under a minute remaining in the period.
It looked as if TCU would enter the locker room trailing, but Roden produced a big play to put the Frogs back on top. The 5-8 senior grabbed an in-bounds pass with only five seconds remaining before driving the length of the court to drill a buzzer-beating trey from the left wing. The shot gave the Frogs a 32-30 advantage at intermission.
Postseason play begins for the Lady Frogs next with the Phillips 66 Mountain West Conference Championships in Las Vegas. TCU faces No. 7 seed Air Force to begin the first round Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. CST. The contest will be televised live on The Mountain West Sports Network (The Mtn.).
