TCU will have to survive a defensive battle against West Virginia to become back-to-back Big 12 Tournament champs
Will the third time be the appeal for West Virginia?
The No. 15-ranked Mountaineers tackle No. 10 TCU for a third time this season, with the Big 12 Tournament title on the road between the No. 2 seed and No. 1 seed, respectively, within the convention. The title sport ideas off at 5 pm ET on ESPN.
The Horned Frogs are aiming to replicate final 12 months’s program-best season by pairing the Big 12 regular-season championship with the event championship. West Virginia has one Big 12 event title in program historical past, captured in 2014.
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In mid-January, the Mountaineers hosted the Horned Frogs in (*12*). The ending was thrilling, as Marta Suárez hit a buzzer-beating 3 to enable TCU to escape with the 51-50 win.
But in any other case, the matchup was a mess, in a approach that was presumably predictable between two of the nation’s finest defensive groups. As Josh Felton recently highlightedWVU has an aggressive defensive id, which helped them trigger TCU to commit a season-high 24 turnovers. The Horned Frogs, the perfect field-goal share protection within the nation, lived up to that normal, deploying their dimension to maintain the Mountaineers to 28 % capturing.
The second assembly wasn’t fairly as ugly, however protection nonetheless dominated the day within the 59-50 TCU win.
The Mountaineers performed one other dirty sport in Saturday’s semifinal to earn the chance for a third shot on the Horned Frogs. WVU required a late 3 from Gia Cooke to safe the semifinal win over Colorado, 48-47. As indicated by the ultimate rating, scoring was scarce, as WVU gained regardless of capturing 31 % from the sphere and 23 % from 3; additionally they made lower than 70 % of their free throws.
TCU’s semifinal win additionally wasn’t very elegant. Matched up against a Cinderella Kansas State squad, TCU, down by a level, 33-32 on the half, steadily started to draw back within the third quarter. That was when Suárez popped off for 14 of his game-high 22 factors. The Horned Frogs’ protection then sealed the 74-62 win by holding the Wildcats to 25 % capturing within the fourth.
Needless to say, it will not be stunning if the 2 groups mix to rating lower than 100 factors.
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However, neither aspect is devoid of offensive expertise. While streaky, the aforementioned Suárez, who averages over 17 factors per sport, is a licensed sharpshooter, with Donovyn Hunter and Taylor Bigby additionally capturing over 35 % from 3. Then, in fact, there’s Olivia Miles, a triple-double menace who can set her teammates up for triples—or bury them herself. In his lone season in a TCU uniform, Miles has made his mark, with nearly 20 factors, 7.1 rebounds and 6.4 assists per sport.
Cooke leads the Mountaineers with nearly 15 factors per sport, whereas Kierra Wheeler provides over 13 factors and seven.5 boards. Jordan Harrison assumes the first playmaking duties with 5.2 assists per sport, as well as to captaining WVU’s protection.
