TCU upsets No. 17 Oklahoma State with Medley’s shot, talk on target

Four years ago, when Zahna Medley first stepped foot on TCU’s campus, she could shoot the 3-pointer.

She set season high marks in 3-pointers made her freshman and sophomore years with 77 and 80, respectively.

While her game has become much more well-rounded in the last three seasons, she owes a lot of her success to that shot from behind the arc.

“Shooting as well as I did freshman year and coming into sophomore year, a lot of people were running out on me, so I developed the mid-range, driving-to-the-basket type of aspect for my game,” Medley said. “Then I had both driving and the 3, so I think that’s really kind of what made it tough to guard me.”

Saturday, Medley gave historical validation to the roots of her offensive game, passing Jill Sutton’s program-leading 296 career 3-pointers with a step-back 3-pointer in the second quarter in TCU’s 79-65 win over No. 17 Oklahoma State.

Medley needed three baskets from behind the arc to etch her name as the program’s best 3-point shooter and she did even better, hitting 5 of 8 attempts from downtown.

The achievement came on alumni weekend at Schollmaier Arena, in front of many former women’s basketball players, which made it all the more special for Medley, she said.

“I couldn’t imagine any other game to get that record in alumni weekend, and knowing I’m going to be an alumni in a month or two is really exciting that I was able to accomplish it in this game,” Medley said. “God has a plan. He didn’t want me to get it last game. He had a specific reason and a specific time of when he wanted me to do this. I just feel blessed and really humbled.”

That three with 6:31 left in the second quarter began a 9-0 TCU run and recaptured a lead that TCU (15-11, 7-8 Big 12) would not relinquish for the remainder of the game.

It was TCU’s first victory over a ranked opponent in nine attempts this season.

In three of TCU’s losses to ranked teams — against Texas A&M, Oklahoma and West Virginia — TCU led before collapsing in the final quarter.

With six minutes remaining Saturday, Medley took over a timeout, telling her teammates not to dwell on past failures.

“It was a pretty impressive timeout,” TCU coach Raegan Pebley said. “I came in ready to talk, but she was already talking and I just let her continue because it was the exact message she was going to say, so let her do it. I think it really hit home to all of them.”

Leading 67-59 during the timeout, TCU allowed Oklahoma State (19-7, 9-6) just six more points and scored 12 to close out the game.

“If you don’t go through those situations and the pain of those situations in the past, I don’t think we’re a team that’s able to close this type of game out today,” Pebley said. “It put purpose to our pain earlier in the year that we were able to get this W and execute in that fourth quarter.”

Medley finished with a team-high 20 points as one of five TCU players in double figures.

Oklahoma State’s Brittney Martin had a game-high 28, followed by Kaylee Jensen with 20. Besides those two, only three other Cowgirls scored.

Medley said the team had called this game a must win, keeping up hopes the Frogs could see postseason play despite a 7-8 Big 12 record.

Next, however, are matchups with ranked teams Texas and West Virginia, both on the road.

“The postseason will take care of itself,” Pebley said. “We just have to take care of one practice at a time, one possession of a game at a time. If you do that, then the postseason will take care of itself.”

This story was originally published February 20, 2016 at 7:40 PM with the headline "TCU upsets No. 17 Oklahoma State with Medley’s shot, talk on target."