The Lady Frogs basketball team moved into second place in the Mountain West Conference Saturday with a 62-48 victory over the first place Brigham Young Cougars at Daniel Meyer Coliseum.TCU (21-9, 11-5) finished its regular season on a two game winning streak after beating the San Diego State Aztecs on February 28.
Senior guard Ashley Davis said she was pleased with the win in her last career home game with the team.
“Any win at this point of the season is a big one for us, “Davis said. “We haven’t beaten BYU since we moved into the MWC so it was definitely a good win.”
A senior day ceremony was held after the game to honor Davis and fellow senior forward Hanna Biernacka for their achievements with the team.
Junior guard Adrienne Ross, who tied with Biernacka with a game high 17 points, credited defense for the team’s victory.
“We limited their post play and were able to slow their guards down, which allowed us to stay in the game with our defense,” Ross said.
While only shooting 38% from the field, TCU forced BYU (21-8, 12-4) to commit 18 turnovers and watched the cougars shoot 36% from the free-throw line in winning its last game of the regular season.
Biernacka also grabbed 8 rebounds in addition to her 17 points, while the team combined for four steals in the game.
“We’ve always placed an emphasis on creating turnovers,” said head coach Jeff Mittie. “Today was just a grind-it-out victory, where neither team played particularly well but grinded it out in the end.”
Senior center Dani Kubek Wright led the way for the cougars with 12 points and 2 blocked shots while junior center Lauren Riley grabbed 9 rebounds.
TCU’s victory ensures a tiebreaking scenario for the final seeding in the MWC tournament next week with New Mexico after the Lobos victory against SDSU.
The winner of the game between Wyoming and Utah late Saturday afternoon will also be in the tiebreaking mix.
Coach Mittie said he was optimistic of the team’s chances in the tournament.
“Any win against BYU is good,” Mittie said. “Even though we didn’t shoot the ball well, hopefully we continued to play hard and hopefully we can carry our recent success into the tournament.”
The MWC tournament will begin on March 6 in Las Vegas, Nevada.