No. 17 WBB Falls in Close Game to No. 10 TCU

Sunday, March 2

Waco, Texas

5:30 PM

Baylor

25-6,15-3Big 12

TCU

28-3,16-2Big 12

TCU

Baylor

No. 17 WBB Falls in Close Game to No. 10 TCU

3/2/2025 8:30:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Felder, Vonleh scored 17 points apiece on Senior Night

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

WACO, Texas – Sarah Andrews can impact a game in so many ways, even when she's not scoring.

In 17^th-ranked Baylor's winner-takes-all Big 12 matchup against No. 10 TCU Sunday night at Foster Pavilion, the Bears' 5-6 senior guard scored a season-low one point and was 0-for-7 from the floor. She still found other ways to contribute, though, with her stifling defense, four assists, three rebounds, one block and a steal with no turnovers and a game-high plus-minus of plus-5.

But fourth-year Baylor coach Nick Collen said that if "Sarah Andrews has a typical Sarah Andrews day, we're cutting nets down right now."

Instead, 6-7 center Sedona Prince had a monster double-double with 16 points and 19 rebounds to help TCU (28-3, 16-2) hold on for a hard-fought 51-48 win over the Bears (25-6, 15-3) to claim its first Big 12 title in the Frogs' 13^th year in the league.

The Horned Frogs didn't cut down any nets, but they did don Big 12 Championship T-shirts and were still soaking it in on the Mark & Paula Hurd Floor more than an hour after the game ended.

"I think it was great for women's basketball," Andrews said of Sunday's historic game, the first time in the 28-year history of the Big 12 that the title came down to a winner-takes-all matchup on the last day of the regular season.

"I think it was great for both Baylor and TCU to have a game like this. This was the first time this has ever happened. Just a great game for women's basketball."

In a game where two of the league's top three offenses struggled mightily, shooting a combined 31.4% from the floor and scoring 30 points below their season averages, Baylor was able to keep it close by forcing 18 turnovers and scoring 13 second-chance points off 12 offensive rebounds.

"I thought both teams played good defense," Collen said. "We played very differently. We got aggressive with them and extended pressure, and I thought (TCU was) very much toes on the 3-point line . . . congestion, congestion, congestion. Sedona bothered us, because she never came hardly above the charge arc, so we had no ability to roll behind her."

A two-point game going into the fourth quarter, the Bears missed 15 of their first 16 shots and fell behind by as many as 10 points, 49-39, when Hailey Van Lith hit a pair of free throws with 1:49 left in the game.

"I think tonight was one of those nights where the basket wasn't really our side," said Colorado transfer Aaronette Vonleh, who had her second-straight and fourth double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds. "We just need to make shots. . . . I hope we get another chance to prove that we can beat them because I know that we can."

Picking up the intensity on both ends, Baylor held TCU without a field goal for the last 4 ½ minutes, forced three turnovers in the last minute and went on a 9-1 run to make it a one-possession game, 50-48, with 13 seconds left when Vonleh scored on a layup.

One of six seniors honored prior to the game, along with Vonleh, Andrews, Jada Walker, Aliyah Matharu and Madison Bartley, Ohio transfer Yaya Felder started the late run with a floater in the lane and nailed a 3-pointer on back-to-back possessions.

TCU missed four of its last six free throws to leave the door cracked open, but Felder missed a 3-pointer with six seconds left that would have tied it up and potentially sent the game into overtime.

"Yaya came out and played. She had a phenomenal game," Andrews said of Felder, who had 17 points and five rebounds, but hit just 5-of-16 from the floor. "I think the last shot that she took kind of hurt her. I think that's where a lot of (her emotion) came from. But I was telling her, 'Hey, you played an amazing game. One shot doesn't determine you. We've still got a lot more basketball to play.'''

Playing in her 163^rd career game, Andrews broke the program record that Suzie Snider Eppers had held since 1977, when the Bears were playing in the AIAW. Andrews poured in 21 points in an 80-75 loss to TCU on Jan. 26 in Fort Worth, which snapped the Bears' 37-game winning streak and gave the Frogs their first win in the series in 35 years.

"We shot the ball pretty badly tonight, but we played a great game on defense," Andrews said. "But we've still got more basketball left to play. Just carrying our defense over, knowing that our offense will come. We'll get in the gym, and we'll put it all back together."

Van Lith had seven of TCU's 13 turnovers, but the LSU transfer had 14 points and two blocks for the Frogs, who won their first conference title in the sport since winning the Mountain West championship in 2010.

Seeded second for the Big 12 Championship that starts Wednesday in Kansas City, Baylor has a double bye and will play in the quarterfinals on Friday.