Women’s Basketball: TCU wins Big 12 Tournament, defeating Baylor in Championship Final

Horned Frogs finish the season 31-3, completing three-game season sweep of Bears with 64-59 win in Conference Title Game

The trilogy of 2025 contests between 8th-ranked TCU Women’s Basketball and No. 17 Baylor reached its conclusion on Sunday in Kansas City for the Big 12 Conference Tournament Championship, with the Horned Frogs emerging with the season-sweep of the Bears 64-59 to earn the program’s first Big 12 Tournament trophy. TCU earned its way there as the conference’s regular season champion and 1-seed, defeating 9-seed Colorado 69-62 in the Quarterfinals and 16th-ranked West Virginia in the semifinal before the inevitable showdown with 2-seed Baylor. Sedona Prince & Hailey Van Lith were named to the All-Tournament Team while Van Lith earned the Big 12 Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player Award. Van Lith led the game Sunday with 20 points while Prince played every minute of the Final, scoring 12 with 14 rebounds. Madison Conner & Donovyn Hunter each scored 11, making it rain from long range, while Agnes Emma-Nnopu earned the start and made many of the game’s most important plays for the Frogs, including the game-sealing free throws.

The Horned Frogs opened the game with a corner three ball from Donovyn Hunter, the only shot to fall from long range for TCU in the opening frame. The Bears continued the physical battling that was the hallmark of the teams’ first two contests this season, getting whistled for five fouls in the first quarter, with TCU able to convert all four of its free throw attempts. Even with the close officiating for the Final, the contest was a defensive slugfest in the opening 10 minutes, with 10 combined turnovers. Una Jovanovic earned heavy early minutes and closed the quarter with a slick move to create space and rise for the jumper to give TCU the 4 point advantage at the first break.

The Baylor defense continued to cause trouble for the Frogs in the second quarter, forcing additional nine turnovers bringing TCU’s first half total to 15. Despite the sloppy play in possession, TCU was effective when it could get a shot up. Madison Conner caught fire with a pair of triples and Hunter added another to her total as the Horned Frogs shot 56% from the field in the period. Prince and Van Lith were shut out during the quarter however, missing all three of their combined shot attempts. Even so, TCU’s defending was elite, allowing just three made baskets during the quarter as the Bears shot 21% from the field as the Frogs carried an 11-point lead into halftime.

The third quarter became a foul fest as the officials often found fault on both sides of the floor, calling eight fouls on the Bears and seven against the Frogs. With both squads into the bonus early, the teams combined for 19 points from the charity stripe, including a perfect 8-8 from Van Lith during the period, part of a 10-10 free throw effort on the game from the Big 12 Player of the Year. After being held to under 26% shooting in the first half, Baylor found its groove after halftime, slowly cutting into the Horned Frogs’ lead, which had grown as high as 12 down to eight into the final frame.

The Frogs maintained that eight point lead through four minutes of the 4th quarter, but things began to fall apart for the Frogs midway through the 4th quarter as the once-safe TCU advantage was erased when Baylor tied it on an Aaronette Vonleh layup with four minutes to play in regulation, part of a 20-point day for the Baylor star, completing an 8-0 run. Sedona Prince finally extinguished that scoring drought with a lay-in on the other end, putting TCU back ahead with three minutes to play.

As the game hit this critical juncture, TCU showed immense poise to deliver some monster moments to bring this game to its positive conclusion. Emma-Nnopu with supreme strength and awareness to rip a rebound out of the hands of Vonleh to earn an extra TCU possession and leading to another Baylor foul before securing another offensive board allowing TCU to burn the clock under 90 seconds. On the defensive end, Donovyn Hunter swiped a pass for a steal that led to a monumental Van Lith Euro step layup for two of her 16-point 2nd half to get the Frogs ahead two possessions.

Emma-Nnopu blocked a shot and Sedona Prince got a steal that forced Baylor to use its last foul-to-give, with TCU needing to complete an in-bounds, something that was a major struggle late in Waco last week. Twice the Frogs were able to successfully get the ball in bounds, but in each case Mark Campbell called a timeout before Baylor could be whistled for a clock-stopping foul. Once TCU finally played out the entry pass, Van Lith was forced out of bounds for a turnover. Vonleh quickly cut the deficit to two with a layup and fouled Madison Conner, needing the career 86% free throw shooter to miss. Conner got just one of the two attempts to fall, giving TCU a three point lead and the Bears a ray of hope. Baylor drew up a play to get Vonleh a wide open three-point look from straightaway that bounced dangerously off the rim before falling to Emma-Nnopu. She drew the foul, made the two free throws and sealed the victory for the Horned Frogs for the first Big 12 Tournament Championship in program history.

TCU will now await its NCAA Tournament seed and bracket setting, earning the automatic bid as conference champions, reaching the Big Dance for the first time since 2010. The Horned Frogs are a lock to have secured a top-4 seed and likely near the top of the seed list after finishing 31-3 with the outright Big 12 regular season and Tournament titles, earning the right to host the first two rounds of March Madness in Schollmaier Arena. Selection Sunday bracket reveal will be broadcast on ESPN at 7 PM on March 16.