TCU women head to Big 12 tourney on heels of six straight losses

In the middle of the Big 12 regular-season schedule, TCU had pulled itself up by the bootstraps after an 0-5 start to a 4-8 conference record.

A ray of optimism emerged until the Horned Frogs dropped their last six Big 12 games, including the regular-season finale Monday at Texas Tech, TCU’s first-round opponent Friday at Chesapeake Arena in Oklahoma City.

“We have to use that game,” TCU coach Raegan Pebley said of Monday’s 79-64 loss. “Not only for motivation, because we know we have to play better, but personnel-wise, doing a better job on their guards and taking care of the ball a lot better than we did.”

Despite turning 4-8 into 4-14, Pebley and the Horned Frogs are still holding that optimism, as some of those late losses saw the Horned Frogs outplay expectations against some of the conference’s top contenders. TCU’s hot hand from long range in non-conference play, when the Frogs were one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the country, cooled off to 32 percent during conference play, third-worst in the Big 12.

Point guard AJ Alix is the exception. The junior from Houston has shot better than 40 percent from beyond the arc all season, good for sixth-best in the league.

“It seems a lot like shots just aren’t falling,” Pebley said. “When you look at the type of shots we’re getting, as a coach, I’m confident those are going to start to fall again.”

On Jan. 25, TCU went step-for-step with then-No. 12 Texas in a 77-69 loss. On Feb. 12, the Horned Frogs were right there for three quarters with No. 2 Baylor before the Bears’ lead ballooned late in a 91-73 loss in Fort Worth. Six days later, then-No. 24 Kansas State escaped Fort Worth with a 68-65 win after TCU led that game for nearly 38 minutes.

The winner between TCU and Texas Tech, which split a pair of conference games during the regular season, will get No. 2 Baylor in the second round Saturday afternoon. The Bears caught Texas for the top spot, after a rare conference loss in Waco on Feb. 6, by rattling off five straight wins to close Big 12 play, including a 70-67 win at then-No. 8 Texas. It was the Bears’ seventh consecutive Big 12 regular-season title.

“This is the time of year you’ve got to be really tough,” Pebley said. “You can’t let the opposition get comfortable in their spots, and you’ve got to defend people’s best players really well.”

This story was originally published March 2, 2017 at 3:46 PM with the headline "TCU women head to Big 12 tourney on heels of six straight losses."