The Frogs will play in their first NCAA Tournament game since 2010 on Friday
TCU Women’s Basketball will play its first NCAA Tournament game since 2010 in Schollmaier Arena at 2:30 pm this Friday. The Frogs are the number two seed in the Birmingham 3 regional and are matched up with 15 seed Fairleigh Dickinson in the first round. FDU earned an auto-bid to the Big Dance with a Northeast Conference Championship win and come into the game against the Frogs on a 22-game winning streak.
Team Overview
The FDU Knights went 29-3 during the regular season and went undefeated in Northeast Conference play. The Knights took down Stonehill in the NEC championship game by a score of 66-49 to secure a bid to March Madness. FDU’s three losses came against three solid opponents in non-conference games. Syracuse, UConn, and Rutgers all easily handled the Knights, winning by a margin of at least 19 points. Turnovers were an issue for the Knights in all three of those games with at least 17 turnovers as a team in each of their three losses.
Fairleigh Dickinson does not have a prolific offense, scoring just 67.5 points per game which ranks 129th in the nation. The Knights offense is very dependent on three-point shooting with their highest scoring games being driven by volume three-point shooting. FDU scored at least 90 points in two games this season and shot over 48 percent from three in both games. The Knights shoot 34.6% from three as a team and will need to make plenty of threes to keep up with the Frogs on Friday. The Knights do a solid job of crashing the offensive glass, averaging 12.2 offensive rebounds per game and sharing the ball with 14.3 assists per game.
FDU’s calling card is their defense, holding their opponents to just 54.7 points per game which ranks 12th in Division I. The Knights hold opposing teams to just 38 percent shooting from the field and do a solid job of securing defensive rebounds with 25.4 per game.
Key Players
The Knights are led in scoring and rebounding by Teneisia Brown who is averaging 15 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 2 assists per game on 53.5 percent shooting from the field. The senior is coming off her best performance of the season in the conference championship game where she put up 34 points and 8 rebounsd on 11-19 shooting from the field. Brown is not an outside shooter but does a great job of finishing through contact in the paint. The Frogs rim protection will need to be on point on Friday to slow her down.
Point guard Abaigeal Babore leads the team in assists with 3.3 per game along with 10.5 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. Babore can do damage from beyond the three point line, shooting 38% from deep this season on 3.4 attempts per game. Babore is also deadly accurate from the free throw line, shooting 92.8% from the stripe this season.
Freshman guard Ava Renninger is second on the team in scoring, averaging 13.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game of 40.3% shooting from the field. Renninger is another solid shooter, knocking down 33.7% from deep on 5.5 attempts per game. Renninger’s best game of the season came against Mercer where she knocked down six of eight attempts from three on her way to 28 points.
Overall
The FDU defense could cause some frustrations for TCU but the Frogs are too talented for this game to be close. Expect a big game from Sedona Prince as FDU does not have a player taller than six foot two meaning Prince shoul dhave the ability to get easy buckets in the paint.
Final Prediction: TCU 81, FDU 56