Drew’s Desk: Defense sparks TCU women’s basketball in win over Texas Tech

TCU held both Texas Tech and Kansas State under 60 points and 45% shooting from the field.

TCU Women’s Basketball went 1-1 this past week with a loss on the road to a very good Kansas State Wildcats team by a score of 59-50 last Wednesday and a home win over Texas Tech on Saturday by a score of 63-42. The Frogs now sit at 22-3 on the season and 10-2 in the Big 12. With Kansas State losing to Oklahoma State this past Saturday, TCU is still tied for the best record in the Big 12. While Kansas State holds the head to head tiebreaker, the Wildcats have a tough schedule to close out the regular season meaning the Frogs are still right in the mix for a regular season conference championship.

Tale of Two Second Halves

In the two games this past week, Frog fans saw two very different second half showings from TCU Women’s Basketball. Against Kansas State, the Frogs took a six point lead into halftime thanks to a great effort in the first half on the defensive end of the floor. The second half was a different story as Kansas State adjusted and outscored the Frogs 40-25 after halftime. TCU never adjusted to Kansas State’s aggressive defense of blitzing ball screens leading to 17 TCU turnovers compared to just 10 assists. The Frogs never settled in and in the second half, it came back to bite them.

Against Texas Tech, however, TCU took a one point lead into the break and turned up the defensive intensity in the second half to limit the Red Raiders to just 16 total points in the last two quarters. TCU made adjustments at halftime to what they were seeing offensively from Texas Tech and it paid off as the Frogs grew their lead by 20 points in the second half. As the regular season comes to a close and the Frogs move into the Big 12 tournament and March Madness, the margins will slim significantly.

Games will be closer and decided late in the fourth quarter and the Frogs need to find ways to have second half performances like in the game against Tech to make the deep postseason run that they are capable of having.

Aaliyah Roberson Efficiency

The offensive performance from the Frogs against Texas Tech was not their best. TCU shot just 40.7% from the field as a team and 28.1% from deep against the Red Raiders. Texas Tech sent extra help defenders to Hailey Van Lith, Sedona Prince, and Madison Connor meaning the Frogs needed one of their role players to step up. Luckily for TCU, Aaliyah Roberson was more than up to the task as she scored a season high fourteen points and collected four rebounds, one assist, and one steal.

What was most impressive was that Roberson went 4-4 from the field, 2-2 from three, 2-2 from the free throw line, and turned the ball over just once in her 21 minutes of playing time. Roberson turned in an incredibly efficient performance when the rest of the offense was struggling to knock down shots, leading the Frogs in scoring for the first time all season. As one of the few non-transfers on the team, Roberson has provided consistent performances in multiple roles this season for the Frogs.

Defense

As mentioned earlier, the TCU offense was a bit off against Texas Tech and only managed to score 50 points on the road against Kansas State. Despite these offensive struggles, TCU was very much in the game against Kansas State and beat Texas Tech by 21 points thanks to excellent defensive efforts in both games. Kansas State averages over 80 points per game and the Frogs were able to hold them to just 59 points. The Wildcats shot just 43.1% from the field which is well below their season average of almost 50% and turned the ball over 11 times compared to just 11 assists as a team.

Texas Tech managed just 42 points against the Frogs, shooting 28.8% from the field and 27.3% from three. TCU’s defense has been consistently dominant all year and is the most underrated aspect of this team.

Highlight of the Week

The bank is open.

Looking Ahead

The Frogs will host BYU on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m before traveling to Tucson, Arizona for a game against the Wildcats on Sunday at 3 p.m.