Lady Frogs down Mich., gear up for UConn
By Drew Irwin
Skiff Staff

For the third straight year, the women’s basketball team advanced past a Big Ten team in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

But it did so in an ugly fashion, however, edging Michigan State Sunday, 50-47.

After the Spartans jumped to an early 12-10 lead, the Lady Frogs put together seven straight points to take a 17-12 lead into halftime. It was both teams’ lowest halftime scores of the year.

TCU’s strong rally continued in the second half, grabbing the first 11 points of the half to make the score 28-12. But the 16-point lead would be the Lady Frogs’ largest, as Michigan State slowly chipped away at the lead, coming as close as 1-point behind with four seconds left in the game.

“We knew that they had the momentum in them,” senior guard Tricia Payne said in a postgame interview. “But obviously we relaxed some because we didn’t take care of the ball and we made poor decisions down the stretch.”

Senior forward Grace Gantt had a team-high 15 points for TCU, including an important 3-pointer seconds before the first half ended.

“(Gantt) was a huge factor for us,” head coach Jeff Mittie said in a postgame press conference broadcasted on KTCU-FM (88.7). “She has (a limited) amount of games left in her career at TCU and its great to see her play a great one today.”

Mittie said it was important that Gantt played well because junior guard Ebony Shaw struggled. Although Shaw iced the game with a lay-up in the last second, that was her only field goal of the game.

“Ebony struggled today; her shot was off, and she was struggling getting into the flow the game,” Mittie said in the press conference. “We really needed to go to someone, and Grace was that person we went to. And she gave us a big lift.”

Senior guard Candace Baldwin said TCU’s defense was the key to the game. Michigan State was held to its lowest point total of the year Sunday.

“I believe we are a strong defensive team,” Baldwin said in the press conference. “We just went out there and played our hardest and had to make some big plays late.”

Although sophomore forward Sandora Irvin grabbed 14 rebounds in the game, she struggled offensively with only six points.

Mittie said Michigan State played well against her.

“They were very tough on (Irvin),” Mittie said. “At times there were three or four people on her when the ball arrived, and she struggled with that most of the day.”

Michigan State’s Syreeta Bromfield came off the bench with a game-high 18 points and 15 rebounds. She also recorded 10 of the Spartans’ 12 first-half points and pulled Michigan State to within a point before Shaw’s lay-up.

The Lady Frogs advance to play Connecticut in the second round today. Connecticut rebounded from its first loss in 71 games with a 91-44 win over Boston in its first-round game. The game will be on Connecticut’s home court and is scheduled to start at 8:15 p.m.

Drew Irwin