Lady Frogs shoot down Tech hopes for WNIT crown

Win or lose, Adrianne Ross was going to enjoy herself Wednesday night.

The Texas Christian senior was playing within a two-hour drive of her hometown, so she had her own personal cheering section at United Spirit Arena. She also got her first chance to play against Texas Tech, a team she grew up rooting for and where her older brother made quite a name for himself.

As it turned out, Ross had more fun than she could have imagined. The 5-foot-8 guard scored a game-high 23 points to lead TCU to an 81-74 victory over the Lady Raiders in the third round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament — the Lady Frogs' first win against Tech in 38 tries.

Ross and TCU (23-11) advance to face either Colorado or Villanova, which play today at Colorado, in the WNIT quarterfinals. The Lady Raiders (17-16), who picked up their first postseason victory since 2005 on Saturday, saw their season end before a home crowd of 2,346.

Texas Tech's Maddy Brown goes up for a shot in front of TCU's Helen Roden Wednesday during a third-round WNIT game at United Spirit Arena. The Lady Raiders lost, 81-74.

Ross started out strong, scoring 10 points early as TCU built a 21-12 lead midway through the first half.

Then, when the teams were locked in a back-and-forth battle late in the second half, she helped the Lady Frogs pull away.

Ross’ baseline jumper with 5:30 remaining broke a 67-67 tie, and she added a steal and subsequent layup about a minute later to help key an 8-0 run. The Lady Frogs never trailed after that point.

“She had a great night tonight,” Tech coach Kristy Curry said, “so you have to give her a lot of credit for that.”

Senior forward Lorie Butler-Rayford also had a good night for TCU, scoring 15 points, grabbing a game-high 15 rebounds and dishing out a team-high five assists while committing only two turnovers.

Freshman Helena Sverrisdottir added 16 points and was 6 of 6 from the free-throw line, and she and Butler-Rayford helped neutralize Big 12 Conference newcomer of the year Dominic Seals.

Tech’s leading scorer and rebounder had only six points and three boards in 25 minutes, and the Lady Frogs kept Seals from finding a rhythm by throwing an array of defenders at her.

“We recognized when she had the ball. We did a good job,” TCU coach Jeff Mittie said. “I thought Jenna Lohse was huge, because she guarded her one-on-one some and made some big plays in the second half.”

The rest of the Lady Raiders did their best to make up for Seals’ struggles. Forward Stanecia Graham scored 11 first-half points off the bench, and sophomore Ashlee Roberson led Tech with seven rebounds — including five offensive boards.

Shooting guard Keisha Walker scored a team-high 16 points for Tech — the most she’s scored since pouring in 18 against Sam Houston State on Nov. 27 — while Jordan Murphree added 14 points.

Walker, Murphree and Maddy Brown combined for eight of the Lady Raiders’ nine 3-point goals, one shy of the their season high.

The Lady Raiders shot 42.9 percent (27 of 63) from the field and a season-best 91.7 percent (11 of 12) from the free-throw line to keep the game close until the five final minutes, but like they have several other times this year, they struggled to execute down the stretch.

“Most of these games have been close, and then it’ll kind of go the other team’s way,” said center Erin Myrick, Tech’s only senior. “Next year, I want to watch them and see it be close, and then at the end we’re pulling it out.”

Texas Christian 81

Texas Tech 74

TEXAS CHRISTIAN 81

FG FT REB

Min. M-A M-A O T PF A TP

Garoutte 9 1-2 0-0 1 2 1 0 2

Sverrisdottir 31 4-11 6-6 2 5 0 3 16

Knight 31 2-6 3-4 0 1 2 3 8

Butler-Rayford 30 6-13 2-3 3 15 3 5 15

Ross 36 10-20 2-3 0 4 0 4 23

Roden 19 2-3 0-1 0 1 3 1 4

Carter 7 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 3

Nunn 16 3-7 0-0 1 3 1 0 6

Lohse 18 1-1 0-0 5 5 0 1 2

Younger 3 1-2 0-0 0 0 2 0 2

2 3

Totals 200 31-66 13-17 14 39 12 17 8
1

TEXAS TECH 74

FG FT REB

Min. M-A M-A O T PF A TP

Roberson 21 1-6 2-2 5 7 5 0 4

Seals 25 2-7 2-2 1 3 3 1 6

Walker 26 5-13 3-3 1 2 2 3 16

Murphree 33 5-11 2-2 1 5 2 3 14

Henderson 20 0-2 0-0 0 4 0 1 0

Moore 25 4-5 0-0 0 3 1 4 8

Graham 13 4-7 3-3 3 3 0 0 11

Brown 17 3-6 0-0 0 1 0 1 9

Myrick 20 3-6 0-0 0 4 3 2 6

1 2

Totals 200 27-63 11-12 12 34 16 15 74

TCU 42 39 — 81

Texas Tech 46 28 — 74

Records: TCU 23-11, Tech 17-16. Shooting percentages: TCU 47.0%
FG, 31.6% 3-pt. FG, 76.5% FT; Tech 42.9% FG, 45.0% 3-pt. FG,
91.7% FT. 3-point goals: TCU 6-19 (Sverrisdottir 2-7, Knight 1-3,
Butler-Rayford 1-3, Ross 1-4, Roden 0-1, Carter 1-1), Tech 9-20
(Roberson 1-1, Walker 3-9, Murphree 2-4, Henderson 0-1, Brown 3-5).
Steals: TCU 12 (Sverrisdottir 3, Knight 2, Nunn 2, Lohse 2,
Butler-Rayford, Ross, Younger); Tech 7 (Murphree 3, Henderson 2,
Seals, Myrick). Blocked shots: TCU 4 (Ross 2, Sverrisdottir, Roden);
Tech 3 (Seals 2, Myrick). Turnovers: TCU 13 (Sverrisdottir 2,
Butler-Rayford 2, Ross 2, Nunn 2, Lohse 2); Tech 19 (Walker 5,
Murphree 5, Moore 5). Total fouls: TCU 13, Tech 16. Fouled out:
Roberson. Technical fouls: TCU, bench. Officials: Gator Parrish, Brian
Hall, Kelly Copeland. Attendance: 2,346.

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