By Jerry Hill                                                          
Baylor Bear Insider
 
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Analytically, maybe it doesn't make much sense to have your 6-3 center take a 3-pointer with the game on the line in the final seconds of Sunday's Big 12 Championship final at T-Mobile Center.
 
"I think it was the easiest way to get a clean look for 3," Baylor coach Nicki Collen said. "And I've seen Nettie knock down a lot of them."
 
Just not this time. With a chance to tie it up and send the game into overtime, Aaronette Vonleh had a wide-open 3-pointer from the top of the key roll off the rim as top-seeded and eighth-ranked TCU (31-3) held on to defeat No. 17 Baylor, 64-59, to win its first conference tournament title in 20 years when the Horned Frogs were in Conference USA.
 
"They would have switched on our guards," Collen said. "It was a good look and looked like it was going in."
 
Trailing by as many as 13, the Bears (27-7) came all the way back to tie it at 57-57 with 3:43 left when Vonleh hit a bucket off an offensive rebound after getting her shot blocked by 6-7 TCU center Sedona Prince. But Prince answered on the other end with a layup off a dish from Hailey Van Lith, who shared game-high scoring honors with Vonleh with 20 points.
 
"Turned into a really good basketball game," Collen said. "I really thought Nettie was going to make that 3, and we would be playing overtime. I thought she was good all night long, and I thought Sarah (Andrews) was the leader of that comeback. She got in her bag and was leading us in that stretch. I thought these guys were a big part of why we ended up with a chance to win it."
 
The Bears went more than three minutes without scoring again before forcing a turnover by Van Lith, converting with another Vonleh layup to get it back to a two-point game, 61-59, with 11.2 seconds left.
 
"We were one stop away every time," said Andrews, who scored 10 of her 13 points in the second half, adding five rebounds, three assists and two steals. "I just felt like we couldn't get over that little hump when we got it to two or so.".
 
After Madison Conner missed one of two free throws, Baylor had a chance to tie it up when Vonleh was left open for a 3-pointer. But the ball rolled around the rim and off, as the Colorado transfer missed for the 12^th time in 14 tries (14.3%) outside the arc this season.
 
Just like the two previous losses to TCU, Baylor had a fourth-quarter rally come up short. The Bears held the Horned Frogs to 26.7% shooting in the final period, including 0-for-4 from distance.
 
"I wish it would happen in the first three (quarters), but games don't always work like that," senior guard Jada Walker said. "We definitely lock in more. We know what we did wrong, so the fourth quarter is when we really lock in. If we could just put that together for the other three, I feel like we'd be fine. Get off to better starts and just settle in, execute our stuff and not be afraid of the big moment."
 
Holding the Bears to just eight second-quarter points and 26% shooting in the first half, TCU took a 30-19 lead into the locker room with eight points apiece from Conner and Donovyn Hunter, who doubled her scoring average with 11 points, six boards and three steals.
 
With Yaya Felder scoring 10 of her 12 points in the third quarter, Baylor was able to whittle the deficit down to eight, 51-43, going into the fourth. TCU was up by double digits three minutes into the final period before Andrews scored the first six points in a 12-2 run capped by Vonleh's game-tying bucket.
 
"I'm always just trying to lift the team up and just be that spark when it's low," Felder said, "just trying to do whatever I need to do for the team.""
 
After Vonleh's miss, the Frogs' Agnes Emma-Nnopu iced the win with a pair of free throws as TCU beat Baylor for the third-straight time and claimed its second Big 12 title in the last eight days after beating the Bears, 51-48, last Sunday in a winner-takes-all matchup at Foster Pavilion.
 
Prince had a double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds, while Conner and Hunter had 11 points apiece. Playing some of her most significant minutes of the season, Baylor junior center Kyla Walker was paired with Vonleh at times and finished with six points, six rebounds and a block in 23 minutes off the bench.
 
"What I learned (at the Big 12 tournament) is that Kyla Abraham made a big ol' jump this weekend," Collen said. "She started making layups, she even made two free throws today. It's been a long time since we played double big. I thought they did a really good job, Nettie and Kyla, playing together."
 
Falling to 11-5 with its 16^th appearance in the Big 12 Championship final, Baylor now awaits the NCAA Tournament selections that will be announced at 7 p.m. Sunday, March 16, on ESPN. With a No. 15 NET ranking going into Sunday's game, BU is in line to be one of 16 host sites for the first and second rounds.
 
"I have zero doubt that we have done what we needed to do in this league," Collen said. "I know we haven't always gotten the respect this year, the Big 12, that say the Big Ten or the SEC have gotten. But I think this league is better than people give it credit for."