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GoFrogs: Women's Basketball Edges SMU, 65-63

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Lifelong Frog
GoFrogs: Frogs Edge SMU, 65-63
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Kianna Ray scored a career-high 20 points and had six assists as the TCU women's basketball team outlasted SMU, 65-63, at Schollmaier Arena on Sunday.

THE RUNDOWN
With Jordan Moore in foul trouble for most of the first half, TCU found itself trailing at halftime for the first time this season.

The senior made her presence felt after the break, however, pouring in eight points on 4-for-4 shooting to help turn the game around. The Horned Frogs outscored the Mustangs, 23-11, in the third quarter to take a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the way.

The TCU defense was particularly strong in the last half of the frame, limiting SMU to just one field goal over the final 4:07 of the third quarter.

The Mustangs refused to go quietly though, responding with a strong fourth quarter to cut the Frog lead to just one on a couple of occasions. Moore sealed the win at the end, pulling down a defensive rebound in the final second to give TCU a 3-0 start for the fifth consecutive season.

With Moore playing just 17 minutes in the game, Ray stepped up to fill the scoring void, finishing with a career-high 20 points. She had a personal-best six 3-pointers in the contest, in addition to padding the stat sheet with six assists, five rebounds, three steals and a pair of blocks in the victory.

Moore scored in double-digits for the third time in as many games this season with 11 points to go along with five rebounds and four blocks. She hit her first five shots in the contest, finishing 5-of-6 from the floor to improve her season shooting percentage to 82.7% (26-of-29).

STAT OF THE GAME
11 – The Horned Frogs had a combined 11 blocks against the Mustangs, matching the most by a TCU team since head coach Raegan Pebley took over in Fort Worth for the 2014-15 season.

QUOTES OF THE DAY
TCU Head Coach Raegan Pebley
"A stat that does not show up on a box score is deflections, and the aggressive perimeter defense that we had with Jayde (Woods), Dakota (Vann), Kianna (Ray) and Lauren (Heard) was huge. They really played off of each other well, so that helped us defensively. Offensively, I would say that this was not our best offensive night. We didn't have a tremendous flow, but we obviously did enough to get the win. It is good experience for us to learn how to play and win offensively without Jordan's presence inside. Yummy (Morris) is going to bring that in time. This was just a game where some of the things we had to do defensively that we needed to trust Amy (Okonkwo) in that five spot a little bit more. I would love to say it would never happen again, but it probably will at some point, and it is good for us to learn.

"The key moment for me was how we came out in the second half aggressively. I remember Dakota (Vann) with a really good finish and Anneli (Maley) with a big transition three that really helped us build some momentum. I thought Kianna shot very well from three, 6-for-11, but a big one was early in the second half when she missed the first one, came back and stayed confident, and hit that second one. That mindset is something that I have worked hard for and want to see our players continue to have. I was proud of them."

UP NEXT
TCU travels to sunny San Diego, Calif., next week for a pair of games at the San Diego State University Thanksgiving Basketball Classic. The Horned Frogs will play BYU on Friday, Nov. 23, before taking on the host Aztecs the following day. Both games are set to tip off at 9:15 p.m. CST.
 
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