GoFrogs: 21-0 Run Pushes TCU to Win

Senior All-American candidate Zahna Medley, the reigning Big 12 Conference Player of the Week, had 13 points as she moved closer to becoming the TCU career points leader. Senior Veja Hamilton and sophomore AJ Alix were big on the scoreboard for the Horned Frogs with 12 and 15 points.

TCU (14-11, 6-8) won back-to-back league games and won on the road in conference play for the third time this season, tying their Big 12 Conference best since joining the league four years ago.

Kansas jumped out to an 8-4 lead in the opening minutes before the TCU defense limited the Jayhawks to just one made field goal in their next to 10 attempts. That allowed the Frogs to go on a 7-0 run to regain the lead at 11-8 thanks to two baskets from Medley and Alix’s first of two first quarter three-point field goals. Her second came at the buzzer to give TCU a 16-12 lead after 10 minutes thanks to 7-of-14 shooting in the opening period.

The Frogs extended their lead in the second quarter to as many as 12m scoring the first four of the period and eventually extending the lead to double digits with a pair of free throws with 4:32 to go in the half by Jada Butts.

The Frogs held Kansas (5-20, 0-14) without a three-point field goal in the first half, but the Jayhawks got two from beyond the three-point line among their first three field goals of the second half to pull with 37-31 with 7:54 to go in the third quarter.

The Frogs responded by scoring the next seven before a media timeout to go up 44-31 and eventually extended the run to 13-0 to end the third quarter as Kansas missed its final 16 shots of the third quarter. TCU led 50-31 at the end of the period thanks to the 7:54 drought to end the third period by the Jayhawks.

TCU’s run eventually went to 21-0 before the Jayhawks hit a free throw with 7:22 to go and missed 19 consecutive shots before hitting a basket with 6:37 to go after TCU had built a 29-point lead.

NOTES
• Freshman Claire Ferguson played in her home state of Kansas for the second time this season and scored her first career field goal with 4:01 left in the game.
• TCU secured its largest win in a league game since joining the Big 12 Conference in 2012-13, marking the second time this season that TCU has set a new benchmark in the category this year after beating Texas Tech by 21 on Jan. 13, 2016.
• TCU now has three road conference wins to its credit in 2015-16, tying the school record for Big 12 Conference road wins in a season.
• TCU is now 4-6 on the road this season with the win, including a 3-4 record in Big 12 Conference play.
• TCU won back-to-back league games for the second time this season and first since winning the first two games of league play against Texas Tech and Kansas State.
• TCU will seek its first three-game winning streak in Big 12 Conference play since a three-game streak last season in early January when it takes the floor on Saturday against Oklahoma State in Fort Worth.
• With its win over Kansas, the Frogs will have a chance to secure a third series sweep of the season on Feb. 29 when TCU hosts Kansas in Fort Worth. A third series sweep of the year would set a new high water mark for TCU since joining the Big 12 Conference. TCU has sweeps of Texas Tech and Iowa State already this season.

UP NEXT
TCU returns home on Feb. 20 to face No. 17/17 Oklahoma State at 1:00 p.m. CT. The game will be televised by Fox Sports Southwest with Chuck LaMendola (play-by-play) and TCU great Janice Dziuk (analyst) on the call. The game is available on the radio via KTCU 88.7 FM in the DFW Metroplex and through GoFrogs.com with Jeff Williams (play-by-play) on the call.