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Frogs
face Hawaii for top spot in WAC As the TCU women’s basketball team headed into its final road trip of the season Feb. 15, the team still had a perfect 11-0 record and the top spot in the Western Athletic Conference. After losing two of the their last three games, the Frogs have their top spot challenged. While the Frogs remain in first place, they are only one loss away from being in a first-place tie with Hawaii, which they play at 2 p.m. Sunday at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. Freshman guard Ebony Shaw said the team is ready for the tough game against Hawaii.
“We hate that we have put ourselves in this position,” Shaw said. “But we’re ready for the challenge. We have to be. It’s really hard because after coming this far, it’s going to take these last three games of the season to determine who is going to finish first in the WAC.” Shaw said the long road trip was only one of the reasons for the team’s poor play. “We were really tired,” Shaw said. “We were gone for five days and came home for just one day before we played (Texas-El Paso). We shouldn’t have let us being tired be a problem, but it was.” When the Frogs last met with the Wahine on Jan. 5, the team defeated Hawaii. 72-66, in overtime. Despite winning the game, the Frogs shot just 26 percent in the first half and managed just 32 points, their lowest first-half point total of the season. Freshman forward Tiffany Evans said the Frogs must play the entire game to have success against Hawaii. “We have to play both halves of Sunday’s game if we want any chance of beating Hawaii,” Evans said. “More importantly, we have to come together as a team and have more fun while playing to get back on track. We had fun on the road but not as much fun as we had earlier this season.” In the Frog’s, 79-76, loss against UTEP Wednesday, the team shot just 29 percent (9-of-11) in the second half. Hawaii is 19-5 overall and 10-3 in the WAC. Similar to the Frogs winning streak of 11, Hawaii had a seven-game winning streak snapped with a, 57-53, loss against Rice Sunday. However, Hawaii boasts the second best three-point field goal percentage in the WAC and has the No. 1-rated defense in the conference. Evans said that while the game is going to be difficult, the Frogs have to look at this game as any other on the schedule. “We can’t look at it as a must-win situation,” Evans said. “Every game’s difficult. (The Hawaii game) shouldn’t be any more difficult than if we had won the games on the road. With so many people talking about our undefeated streak, I think we got too excited and looked too far ahead of us.”
Kelly Morris |
