Ray makes history, as Frogs head into Big 12 Tourney with a win

TCU’s women’s basketball team was picked by the Big 12 to finished eighth in the conference standings.

Well, good try. After a season of overcoming adversity and proving people wrong, the Frogs have finished second overall in the Big 12, with the icing on the cake being a 77-63 win on the road against West Virginia on Saturday.

As she has been all season, guard Lauren Heard was phenomenal for TCU. The Denton, Texas, native scored a game-high 26 points in the win, adding six boards, five assists, and two steals.

For the second time this season, Heard has now scored 20 or more points in three-straight games.

In her final regular season game in the purple and white, Kianna Ray made history. The senior’s early assist gave her 400 on her career. She becomes the first player in TCU history to total 1,000 points, 400 assists, 200 steals, and 100 blocks.

Ray was the only other Horned Frog to score in double figures, finishing with 18 points of her own to go with six rebounds.

Led by Ray, TCU set a tone early in the game that they were determined to leave Morgantown with a win. Thanks to 51 percent shooting as a team and ten points from Ray alone, the Frogs went into the halftime break with a comfortable 41-30 lead.

TCU wasn’t done there, though. They would continue to pound the Mountaineers, leading by as much as 20 in both the third and fourth quarters.

A 7-0 run by West Virginia late in the fourth would make it a ten-point difference, but TCU would lock things down defensively and hold the Mountaineers to just two points in the last 3:33 of the game.

The win gives the Frogs 22 on the season, their most in the regular season since the 2009-2010 season, which, by the way, made it to the NCAA tournament.

TCU had beaten West Virginia at home on Jan. 26, making the victory their sixth sweep of a Big 12 opponent this season (program record).

As if enough records hadn’t been set, forward Adeola Akomolafe played in her 135^th game in the purple and white, tying her with Adrienne Ross for most games played in TCU history.

A Horned Frog bid in the NCAA tournament for the first time in the era of Head Coach Raegan Pebley is inevitable, as TCU is currently listed as a seven seed by ESPN’s Charlie Crème.

TCU will look to solidify their position in the postseason this week in Kansas City, Mo., as they compete in the Big 12 Championship. Their first match-up will be the winner of Texas Tech/Kansas, which takes place the night before.