Frogs ‘soft’ playing leds to loss in overtime
By Nathan Loewen
Assistant Sports Editor

Sunday the No. 24-ranked Horned Frogs played a way they have not played all season long.

Head coach Jeff Mittie said TCU (18-5, 8-2 Conference USA) played “soft” in its 63-59 overtime loss to Tulane (17-9 and 5-6 C-USA) at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.

“We were soft today,” said Mittie. “We weren’t being real strong.”

Maria Adamczyk/PHOTO EDITOR Sophomore forward Tiffany Evans fights for the ball against the defenders in the 63-59 overtime loss to Tulane Sunday. TCU’s, ranked No. 24, head coach Jeff Mittie said his team played “soft” in the loss.

Mittie said the Frogs just did not want to win as much as Tulane wanted it.

“Tulane made some plays today,” said Mittie. “They really wanted it and got after us both defensively and on the glass. If you look at the (box score), it’s is hard to believe that we had a chance to win.”

The Frogs could not get anything going offensively early in the game. TCU did not score until the 13:48 mark in the first half. Despite the shooting struggles in the first half, TCU led at half-time 22-21 while shooting 9 of 29 from the field in the first half.

“We have had a couple of slow starts lately,” said Mittie.

The second half saw seven ties, eight lead changes and the margin between the two teams was no more than six points.

The Frogs were out-rebounded 49-32 by Tulane. Mittie said it is tough to win when you are out rebounded by a double-digit margin.

“We were slow on the ball all day and they out rebounded us,” said Mittie.

TCU played from behind most of the second half. Trailing by two points with 51 seconds left sophomore forward Tiffany Evans hit the game-tying shot. The Frogs had a chance to win after getting the ball back from a held ball call with 31.4 seconds left.

“We wanted to go one shot,” said Mittie. “We didn’t want to give Tulane a chance to shoot.”

Freshman All-America candidate Sandora Irvin missed the jumper from the left block.
“We executed everything we wanted except make the shot,” said Mittie.

The Frogs struggled to make shots in the extra period. TCU 13-9 in overtime.

“We were in too much of hurry today,” said Evans. “We didn’t slow things down when we should have.”

Senior post player Kati Safaritova had a game-high 12 points for the Frogs in the loss.
Mittie wanted to play with more immediacy in the game.

“I wish we would have played with a sense of urgency today. Maybe we would have won,” said Mittie.

This is the Frogs’ first loss at home in conference play. Despite the loss the Frogs are still atop C-USA standings.

The Frogs hit the road to face Memphis 7 p.m. Friday and Saint Louis 2 p.m. Sunday.

Nathan Loewen
n.d.loewen@student.tcu.edu

credits

TCU Daily Skiff © 2002