TCU women snowed under at home by No. 25 West Virginia’s first-half storm

Nearly two feet of snow fell in Morgantown, W.Va., on Friday and Saturday, forcing the West Virginia women’s team to make a break for Pittsburgh to find a clear runway to bring them to Fort Worth.

Sunday, it was the TCU women’s team that couldn’t thaw fast enough, dropping its third straight conference matchup, 97-84 to the Mountaineers on Sunday at Schollmaier Arena.

West Virginia (16-4, 5-2 Big 12) shot 61 percent in the first half, including a 6-for-12 clip from behind the arc to take a 50-23 lead, thanks to a 29-5 run ending the first half.

During that run, TCU (11-8, 3-5 Big 12) turned the ball over four times, which was a part of 13 total turnovers in the half, resulting in 21 points.

The Horned Frogs, who have lost five of their last six, four to ranked opponents, would have their chances. They found their way to the paint by way of dribble penetration and transition offense, but went 2 of 12 on layups in the first half. The failure at the blocks aided in a 28.6 percent shooting clip from the field.

“I think that was indicative our mindset to start the game,” coach Raegan Pebley said. “Missing layups like that, missing rotations and really being reactive as opposed to being proactive on the defensive end will affect you on the offensive end.”

Pebley said no game-plan changes were made in the locker room at the half, it was simply a focus on intensity and effort.

The message rang clear to guard AJ Alix, who posted her own 7-0 run to begin the third quarter as a part of a 9-0 TCU run.

Alix finished the game with 26 points, all in the second half, a career high surpassing the 24 she had against Texas A&M this season.

Alix pulled down a career-high five rebounds and had eight assists while turning the ball over four times. Turnovers have been a struggle for the sophomore, who has made strides in her assist-to-turnover ratio through conference play, which sat at 1.0 heading into Sunday’s matchup.

“I talk to my coach all the time about what I need to do to make this team successful and they keep telling me turnovers,” Alix said. “I just need to learn how to take care of the ball and execute the play and make sure everybody is in the right spots.”

Alix’s 26 matched Mountaineer Jessica Morton’s point total, a career high for the senior.

With a 14.5-point average, Alix has become TCU’s top scorer in the last six games.

West Virginia shot 56 percent from the field for the game and 50 percent from behind the arc with three players scoring 20 points or more.

Junior Jada Butts picked up her 11th start of the game in favor of senior Veja Hamilton, marking her first start since TCU’s loss to Notre Dame on Dec. 12.

Butts had 11 points and five rebounds in 29 minutes and has averaged 7.7 points per game in TCU’s last six contents.

“Right now, in conference, she’s one of our more productive players statistically,” Pebley said. “I feel like in practice there’s been a hard work ethic in there in the attention to detail in our game plan instead of just doing what’s easy and doing what we need to get done.”

With 16 points Sunday, senior Zahna Medley moved into sole possession of third place in TCU history in career scoring, passing Adrianne Ross’ 1,715. With 1,731 points, Medley sits 33 points behind second-place Helena Sverrisdottir and 161 behind TCU’s all-time leading scorer, Sandora Irvin.

West Virginia’s Bria Holmes also moved into third place in her school’s career points record book with 24 points Sunday, moving her total to 1,758.

“I’m just honored and blessed,” Holmes said. “I think it’s great I can be on the list.”

This story was originally published January 24, 2016 at 5:21 PM with the headline "TCU women snowed under at home by No. 25 West Virginia’s first-half storm."