KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Jordan Harrison scored 20 points, Sydney Shaw added 17 and No. 15 West Virginia avenged two regular-season losses to No. 10 TCU by beating the reigning Big 12 Tournament champion 62-53 in the conference title game on Sunday.
Harrison also had six rebounds and four assists while wreaking havoc on defense, and Kierra Wheeler contributed 10 points, helping the second-seeded Mountaineers (27-6) win their second Big 12 tourney title
and first since the 2016-17 season.
Olivia Miles, the league player of the year, scored 17 points for No. 1 seed TCU (29-5) despite playing most of the way in foul trouble. Marta Suarez added 16 points but was just 6 of 19 from the field and fouled out in the final minute.
West Virginia led 56-43 with 90 seconds left before TCU ran off seven straight points to provide some hope. But Harrison, a senior from Oklahoma City, calmly made two free throws with 33.4 seconds remaining to help put the game away.
TCU handed the Mountaineers two of their six regular-season losses, both in defensive slugfests: 51-50 on Jan. 14 and 59-50 just over a month later. And their meeting for the conference championship had the same feel as the first two in the trilogy.
Whichever team broke 50 first would win.
The Mountaineers took a 26-23 lead into halftime, relying on their full-court pressure to take TCU out of its offensive rhythm. At one point, the pesky Harrison turned a turnover by Suarez into a coast-to-coast layup, and on the next possession, Shaw created another turnover that Taylor Bigby converted into another easy layup.
Miles was providing the only consistent offense for TCU. But she picked up her third foul with 2:54 left in the first half and took a seat next to coach Mark Campbell on the bench, and West Virginia scored seven unanswered leading into the break to take control.
Then, Miles picked up foul No. 4 just 39 seconds into the second half.
The transfer from Notre Dame played most of the way, but she wasn't nearly as aggressive, and her supporting cast struggled to pick up the offensive slack. West Virginia relentlessly pressured the Horned Frogs on the defensive end, and Mark Kellogg's team was able to turn enough of that defense into offense to begin pulling away.
The Mountaineers will likely be seeded fourth or fifth in the NCAA Tournament and hit the road for their first-round matchup.
The Horned Frogs are likely to host first- and second-round March Madness games on campus, just like they did last season. And if they advance, they could play in one of the two regionals being played at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
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