Led by Lauren Heard and Aja Holmes’ scoring, the TCU Horned Frogs came back from a 10-point deficit to beat the Kansas State Wildcats 78-67 on Wednesday night.
“It was a good win, a needed win,” said head coach Raegan Pebley. “I’ve just been really proud of how your team has not felt sorry for themselves. They have just kept coming in and fighting to get better and it’s great to see them rewarded today with a victory.”
Heard and Holmes combined for 47 points in the win. Heard scored a game-high 27 points and Holmes had a career-high 20 points with six three-pointers.
“Obviously the three-point line was huge and Aja being a part of that and Michelle converting from that area as well,” said Pebley. “I thought they took good threes, they weren’t bad, rushed threes which can happen against that zone that Kansas State runs.”
Michelle Berry tied her season-high with 15 points, her fifth time scoring double-digit points in the last seven games.
Kansas State went on a 13-3 run in the second quarter to go into halftime up 34-29. However, TCU would come out strong in the third quarter and outscore the Wildcats 16-6 in the final four minutes to take a 57-49 lead going into the final quarter.
The Wildcats would come within two points in the fourth quarter, but Heard’s leadership took over as she scored TCU’s final 10 points to seal the win for the team.
“Going into this game we knew how the games we’ve been playing has been a game of runs and so we’ve in the past been the first team to lay down,” said Heard. “So, our focus was they are going to go on runs and so are we, but who’s going to withstand that and be resilient, and so that was our focus in all of our huddles and time outs.”
The Horned Frogs have won three straight and six of the past seven games against Kansas State.
“I’m super proud of this time and we are going to enjoy it before we really narrow our focus in on the next game against Iowa State,” said Pebley.
TCU will travel to Ames, Iowa this weekend to take on the Iowa State Cyclones Saturday, Feb. 13. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. inside Hilton Coliseum.
