FORT WORTH -- Foul trouble and turnovers plagued BYU (21-8, 12-4) in a 62-48 defeat to Texas Christian (21-9, 11-5) Saturday afternoon. Despite the loss, the Cougars will end Mountain West Conference play with an outright conference title, and the No. 1 seed going into next week's MWC Tournament.
TCU capitalized on BYU turnovers throughout the afternoon. The Frogs scored 20 points off of 18 Cougar miscues and led almost the entire way. BYU mounted several runs to cut into the Frogs' leads, but never gained enough momentum to get over the hump.
"It is hard to get motivated when you have already won a conference championship," BYU coach Jeff Judkins said. "We came out flat and didn't have any intensity."
Both the Cougars and TCU showed their strength early as neither team was able to gain any type of momentum through the first 10 minutes of play. BYU took a 15-14 advantage with 9:38 left in the half after back-to-back buckets from Dani Wright.
Despite shooting above 50 percent throughout the first half of play, several turnovers cost the Cougars over about seven minutes of play as TCU capitalized with 11 points off of BYU turnovers to take 30-19 advantage with 2:55 left in the half. Lauren Riley kept the Cougars close however with all nine of her points in the first half. The Frogs led 30-23 going into the locker room.
BYU came out firing to start the second half and quickly got to within two after a long jumper from Mallary Gillespie with 17:54 left to play. The two teams exchanged blows until TCU went back up by seven. The Cougars would respond. Wright got a pair of buckets, and a layup from Ashley Cheesman cut deficit to 37-36 with 12:26 left. BYU never got any closer.
Foul trouble finally caught up with the Cougars as Jennie Keele fouled out with 7:47 left and starting post players Riley and Wright were straddled with four fouls apiece through most of the final 10 minutes of play.
The Frogs took advantage of the Cougars' misfortunes and went up by seven after a Helen Roden three pointer with just over 10 minutes left. TCU continued to ride its hot streak and went up by 12 with 5:26 left. The Frogs would build their lead as high as 17 points before coming away with the 62-48 win.
Wright led BYU with 12 points to mark the 21st time this season the senior has scored in double figures. The Lawrenceville, Ga., native has scored in double digits in each of the last seven games. Gillespie and Riley each chipped in nine points apiece while Melinda Johnsen added five assists.
Despite coming up on the short end, BYU won the battle on the boards 33-31 behind a game-high nine rebounds from Riley. Keele chipped in six boards from her guard spot. The Cougars are now 16-4 on the year when outrebounding the opposition.
TCU's duo of Hanna Biernacka and Adrianne Ross led all scorers with a game-high 17 points each.
The Cougars will face the winner of the Tuesday night play-in game between Colorado State and Air Force, the number eight and nine seeded teams in the first round of the MWC Tournament Wednesday night at 6 p.m. at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.
all of the MWC Women's Basketbal Championship games are scheduled to air live on the mtn.
Official Basketball Box Score
BYU COUGARS vs TCU
3/3/07 2:00 pm at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum
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VISITORS: BYU COUGARS 21-8, 12-4 MWC
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
35 JOHNSEN, Melinda.... f 2-5 0-1 0-0 0 2 2 1 4 5 0 0 0 34
45 WRIGHT, Dani........ c 5-5 0-0 2-4 1 3 4 4 12 0 0 2 0 26
52 RILEY, Lauren....... c 4-7 0-0 1-4 3 6 9 5 9 0 6 0 0 24
15 KEELE, Jennie....... g 2-3 0-1 0-0 0 6 6 5 4 4 3 0 0 22
30 GILLESPIE, Mallary.. g 4-13 1-6 0-0 0 2 2 1 9 0 1 0 1 37
05 CHEESMAN, Ashley.... 2-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 4 2 2 0 1 14
13 JUDKINS, Jaime...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
22 FADDIS, Brittany.... 0-0 0-0 2-4 2 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 5
31 AINA, Rachel........ 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
32 SLADE, Shawnee...... 1-7 0-1 0-0 2 2 4 3 2 2 4 0 0 26
54 KING, Cassie........ 1-2 0-1 0-2 0 0 0 1 2 0 1 0 0 8
TEAM................ 3 3 1
Totals.............. 21-44 1-10 5-14 8 25 33 21 48 13 18 2 2 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 10-19 52.6% 2nd Half: 11-25 44.0% Game: 47.7% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 0-4 0.0% 2nd Half: 1-6 16.7% Game: 10.0% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 3-6 50.0% 2nd Half: 2-8 25.0% Game: 35.7% 5
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HOME TEAM: TCU 21-9, 11-5 MWC
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
40 LOHSE, Jenna........ f 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 3 2 1 0 0 0 17
42 BIERNACKA, Hanna.... f 8-16 0-0 1-3 3 5 8 3 17 3 1 0 1 36
11 RODEN, Helen........ g 1-7 1-4 4-5 1 3 4 0 7 2 2 0 0 28
33 ROSS, Adrianne...... g 7-15 2-4 1-1 0 3 3 1 17 0 2 0 1 31
34 DAVIS, Ashley....... g 0-4 0-1 2-2 1 3 4 3 2 0 1 0 0 19
05 HEJNY, JimAnne...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
10 KNIGHT, Moneka...... 3-4 0-1 2-3 0 0 0 1 8 3 0 0 0 26
14 BUTLER-RAYFORD, Lor. 2-8 0-1 0-0 1 1 2 4 4 4 1 0 1 26
21 MOORE, Shayla....... 0-1 0-1 0-0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
32 NUNN, Danielle...... 0-2 0-0 5-6 3 0 3 1 5 2 0 0 1 15
TEAM................ 3 3 6
Totals.............. 22-58 3-12 15-20 13 18 31 16 62 15 7 0 4 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-32 37.5% 2nd Half: 10-26 38.5% Game: 37.9% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-6 16.7% 2nd Half: 2-6 33.3% Game: 25.0% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 5-7 71.4% 2nd Half: 10-13 76.9% Game: 75.0% 3,1
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Officials: Rick Morris, Robert Strong, Ernest Solis
Technical fouls: BYU COUGARS-None. TCU-None.
Attendance: 2873
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
BYU COUGARS................... 23 25 - 48
TCU........................... 30 32 - 62
ID-478539