The Lady Frogs hope to extend their six-game winning streak against Brigham Young University on Wednesday night. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. at the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.
In their last outing, the Lady Frogs (12-6, 4-0 MWC) defeated Colorado State University (8-8, 1-2 MWC) 66-40 to extend their winning streak to six games. The Lady Frogs shot nearly 45 percent from the field and out-rebounded the Lady Rams 39-26.
The Lady Frogs started hot, outscoring CSU 29-7 in the first 14 minutes of play. Then, a layup by Colorado State’s Chantel Kennedy sparked an 8-0 run for CSU.
The first half concluded with a 15-6 run by the Rams to bring them within 13 points of the Lady Frogs.
“We jumped out to the big lead, and I feel like we let up and got sloppy,” said head coach Jeff Mittie. “[The] game got really physical. I didn’t like the way we adjusted to that. We’ve got to make those corrections in practice.”
The second half was all TCU, who led by as many as 28 points before the game’s end.
TCU senior guard Emily Carter led all scorers with 20 points and 6-of-12 shooting. She nailed 6-of-9 shots from three-point range.
“Shooting-wise, I think I got my confidence back,” Carter said. “As a team, we were moving the ball really well, so it got me a lot of open shots. We all took some really good shots…whenever we pass the ball well, we are going to be successful.”
Sophomore forward Starr Crawford nearly posted her fifth double-double of the season with 11 points and eight rebounds.
Senior forward Helena Sverrisdottir lead the defensive front against Colorado State with six steals.
The Rams had 31 turnovers in the game.
BYU (11-6, 3-0 MWC) is on a three-game winning streak, including a 68-50 win over in-state rival Utah.
After only leading 46-41, BYU senior guard Haley Hall nailed a three-pointer with eight minutes left in the game off of a feed from BYU’s leading scorer and senior guard Mindy Bonham. This ignited an explosion of offense by BYU that resulted in a 22-9 run to conclude the game.
BYU shot 38.3 percent in the game. However, they held the Utes to 36.7 percent from the field, including 3-for-17 shooting from behind the three-point arch.
This season, the Cougars have held their opponents to 58.7 points per game and 36.2 percent shooting.
This defense, Mittie said, is different than most of the other teams TCU has faced this season.
Mittie said BYU has used a press and liked to extend the floor, which would be a different challenge in terms of initiating offense.
“We need to be aggressive against their press,” Mittie said. “We need to take advantage of the numbers if we have them. I don’t think initiating offense is so much of a problem. It’s making the decisions up the floor.”
Mittie said he did not just want his team to play fast and push the basketball. He said he wanted them to play with composure and ensure they got the shots they wanted to get.
Other than TCU, BYU is the only unbeaten team in the Mountain West Conference.
“A lot of people may be questioning if we should be in first place, so I think this is the game that we can kind of finalize [the discussion],” Carter said. “We are going to try to come out against BYU and make that statement early, that we are the best team in this conference.”