TCU women are 7-0 after victory over Auburn

For the first time in school history, the TCU women’s basketball team is 7-0 to start a season.

The Horned Frogs were able to reach this historic start Saturday afternoon with an 80-65 victory over Auburn at Schollmaier Arena.

TCU won its 22nd consecutive home non-conference game in a contest that was part of this year’s Big 12/SEC Challenge.

TCU and Auburn were both bubble teams a year ago when it came time to select the at-large teams for the NCAA tournament. Auburn was selected, and TCU had to settle for the WNIT.

“This is a great game for us to beat an SEC opponent,” TCU coach Raegan Pebley said. “Clearly we were disappointed we weren’t able to get into the NCAA tournament in comparison to them.”

TCU started 11-1 last season en route to a 24-11 finish. The previous best start to a season for the Horned Frogs came in 2003-04, when TCU started 6-0 and went on to reach the second round of the NCAA tournament and finish 25-7.

Pebley said the 7-0 start is nice, but it’s not something she’ll spend a lot of time reflecting on at this point.

“It’s one of those things that means something when you have the moment and time and perspective to approach it and enjoy it,” Pebley said. “But we’re such a program about where our feet are right now, focus on that. Just lock in on what is happening right now. But 7-0 is a lot better than being 0-7, but we’ll celebrate that at another point.”

TCU was able to pull away from Auburn late in the first half. The Horned Frogs closed the second quarter on a 14-2 run over the final 2:04 to take a 44-31 halftime lead.

TCU never trailed Auburn (4-5), but the Horned Frogs struggled to open the second quarter. They had no answer for Auburn junior forward Unique Thompson, who finished with a game-high 31 points and 15 rebounds. Thompson scored eight points early in the second quarter to help Auburn rally to tie TCU at 24.

But TCU guards Jaycee Bradley and Lauren Heard helped the Horned Frogs pull ahead for good to close out the first half.

Bradley sparked the 14-2 run by completing a three-point play on a 14-foot jumper and made free throw. She finished with a team-high 24 points.

Heard, who finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds, scored seven of TCU’s final 11 points in the first half as the Horned Frogs took control.

“There were some opportunities there that don’t happen if our defense doesn’t fuel that,” Pebley said. “This was a game where there were a lot of moments where different players made big impacts for stretches.”

Bradley had another big moment herself early in the third quarter. She took a charge against Auburn second-leading scorer Daisa Alexander, giving her four fouls and sending her to the bench for the rest of the quarter. Bradley immediately followed that up on the offensive end with a 3-pointer.

“We like to use our defense to fuel our offense,” Bradley said. “I felt like at that point of the game we got a little stagnant, so we needed a little bit of a spark, and taking the charge on the defensive end kind of does that for us.”

The Horned Frogs will now face their toughest challenge of the season Wednesday at No. 12 Texas A&M.

“So far we’ve passed a lot of tests,” Pebley said. “We definitely have some confidence in our defense. … We’re definitely a team that needs to grow offensively. I’m excited about the growth of our interior presence on both ends of the floor.”

Added Bradley:

“I’m excited. I think we’ve come a long way since game one, and the room that we still have to grow is substantial.”

This story was originally published December 9, 2019 at 9:09 AM with the headline "TCU women are 7-0 after victory over Auburn."