FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — While TCU goes as Olivia Miles goes, the playmaking point guard coming off another NCAA tournament triple-double isn’t alone doing things for the Horned Frogs to start this March Madness.
Miles and Co. carry a 43-game home winning streak into Sunday night's second-round NCAA Tournament game against Washington, when the third-seeded Horned Frogs are trying to get to their second consecutive Sweet 16 after never before going
that far.
TCU (30-5) opened with an 86-40 win over UC San Diego, when Miles had her 12th career triple-double and became only the third player to have two in NCAA tourney games. Posts Marta Suarez and Clara Silva added double-doubles and junior guard Taylor Bigby made seven 3-pointers and scored a career-high 27 points.
"When we are clicking on all cylinders and our chemistry is flowing like it did yesterday, we’re really hard to stop," Miles said. "The confidence will carry us far in March, as long as everyone stays together and everyone plays as confidently as they did yesterday.”
Sixth-seeded Washington (22-10), with fifth-year coach Tina Langley, is playing in a second-round game for the first time since 2017. That team made the NCAA Sweet 16 with AP Player of the Year and All-America pick Kelsey Plum, then the NCAA's career scoring leader — a mark surpassed by Caitlin Clark two years ago.
“It’s honestly a great feeling,” fourth-year senior Elle Ladine said. “It’s something that when I committed here, Coach Tina presented on the table that’s something we wanted to accomplish and obviously make a deep run."
The Big 12 regular-season champion Frogs have won nine of their last 10 games, the only setback to West Virginia in the conference tournament championship game in the third meeting between the teams this season.
"It’s all coming together, which is the journey of each season, is can you get your group to that point where you’re playing your best basketball at this time of the year,” third-year coach Mark Campbell said. “This group is doing that. ... So it's been pretty fun."
Transfer guard Avery Howell had 30 points with seven 3-pointers in Washington's 72-54 win over South Dakota State. It was her fourth NCAA tourney win, after being part of Southern Cal's run to the NCAA Elite Eight last season as a freshman.
Junior guard and Huskies leading scorer Sayvia Sellers' four points were 14 below her season average, but she had 10 assists.
“Obviously when you have Avery that’s making seven 3s a game, it makes it really easy to pass the ball,” Sellers said.
After averaging 7.5 points and 3.0 rebounds for the Trojans, Howell is at 14.3 points and 8.3 rebounds a game at Washington.
“I just think being able to play free and like confident with the people you have around you and knowing your coaching staff has your back has helped me a lot this year,” Howell said, "That’s why we’re in the position we are, and I’m able to play free in how I’m playing this year.”
Even though Washington is in its second season as a Big Ten member, and TCU is well-established in the Big 12, there are Pac-12 connections between the schools.
Four TCU players were previously at schools then playing in the Pac-12: Suarez (California), Bigby (USC and Oregon), junior guard Donovan Hunter (Oregon State) and Maddie Scherr (Oregon). Suarez has played in four major conferences, first at Tennessee in the SEC before being part of Cal's final Pac-12 season and Big Ten debut, and now the Big 12.
“A throwback to the Pac-12 days. I was able to play (Washington) here,” Hunter said. “They have been a great squad still. It’s pretty much kind of the same girls. They have just added new girls in. So it’s cool to see them be able to have games in March.”
Seven current Huskies were part of the school's final Pac-12 season in 2023-24.
TCU's home winning streak since February 2024, before any current players were there, matches with Texas for the NCAA's longest active winning streak. The Longhorns, a No. 1 seed, are also at home Sunday for a second-round game against Oregon.
“You can look at it this way, it's not really an NCAA game, it’s really a Quad 1 road game,” said Langley, whose Huskies were 5-4 in conference road games. "We’ve had a lot of those this year in the Big Ten, and we’ve gone into some great environments. So just it’s really important that we treat it the same as we have all year.”
TCU, hosting NCAA tourney games for the second year in a row, went from the earliest possible start in the first round Friday (11 a.m. local time) to the latest ESPN window Sunday night (9 p.m.).
“It’s a head scratcher,” Campbell said. “But at the end of the day we are going to show up and we’re going to be ready.”
The late start could keep some older fans and families from showing up at Schollmaeir Arena, but TCU students will be getting back from spring break before the resumption of classes Monday.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
