Lady Frogs upset in semifinals
By Nathan Loewen
Assistant Sports Editor

In the Lady Frogs’ quest for a second conference tournament championship and a sweep of Conference USA, they were stopped short by Tulane Sunday in the semifinal match 80-76 in overtime.

“They are a good team,” said head coach Jeff Mittie. “They just made one more play than us.”

Tulane faced Cincinnati in the C-USA Tournament Championship Monday night with No. 20 ranked Cincinnati prevailing 68-56.

Simon Lopez/SKIFF STAFF Sophomore post player Tiffany Evans fights for the ball in a Conference USA game.

The Green Wave have competed for the C-USA title for four consecutive years.

In the first game between the two earlier this year, Tulane pulled out the upset over then No. 25 Lady Frogs 63-59 in overtime. This is the second time that the Frogs have lost after TCU received a national ranking in the Top 25. The Lady Frogs were No. 24 in the Associated Press poll heading into the tournament, but dropped out of both polls on Monday.

Mittie said he feels that Tulane has been playing good basketball as of late.

“Tulane is one of the hotter teams in the league,” said Mittie “We played two great games and came up short against Tulane.”

Despite not winning the C-USA Tournament Championship Mittie said the team should still land a bid in the NCAA Tournament come Selection Sunday March 10.

“We are going to the (NCAA) tournament no matter what,” said Mittie. “From what I am told we are probably a (No.) 6 or 7 seed.”

The Lady Frogs now have until March 14, when the first round of the NCAA Tournament begins, to get ready.

Mittie said that they should have 7 to 9 days until they play again.

“We would much rather be playing for the conference championship than the extra day or two off,” said Mittie.

Last season TCU made it to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history with a 24-7 record. The Lady Frogs were an No. 11 seed. TCU made it as far as the second round of the NCAA Tournament beating Penn State 77-75 in the first round and then losing 59-80 to Louisiana Tech in Shreveport, La.

Mittie said the team will use this time to work on some things.

“We have positive time to work on things in our days off,” said Mittie. “We have some (minor) injuries that can get healed.”

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

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