The Big 12 Women’s Basketball Tournament concludes on Sunday in Kansas City as the TCU Horned Frogs and the Baylor Bears meet in the championship game.
The championship game is set for 4 p.m. central at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo. While both teams are heading to the NCAA Tournament based on their body of work, the winner of the game claims the league’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Here is a preview of each game.
How to Watch TCU vs. Baylor
Date: Sunday, March 9
Time: 4 p.m. CT
TV Channel: ESPN
Site: T-Mobile Center, Kansas City, Mo.
Records: TCU, 30-3; Baylor 27-6.
Head-to-Head: TCU 80, Baylor 75 (in Fort Worth, Texas); TCU 51, Baylor 48 (in Waco, Texas).
Big 12 Tournament Results: TCU: def. Colorado, 69-62 (quarterfinal); def. West Virginia, 71-65 (semifinal). Baylor: def. Iowa State, 69-63 (quarterfinals); def. Oklahoma State, 84-74.
TCU vs. Baylor Predictions
This is the game TCU probably didn’t want. The Horned Frogs beat the Bears twice this season. The second game was a absolute knock-down, drag-out in Waco last week, an emotional battle in which TCU claimed its first Big 12 regular-season title. Now, the Horned Frogs will have to beat the Bears a third time for their first Big 12 Tournament title.
It’s one of the hardest things to do in basketball.
TCU will play through guards Hailey Van Lith and Madison Conner. Van Lith (19 points, six rebounds, eight assists) nearly had a double-double in Saturday’s win. Conner dropped in five 3-pointers, and she requires defensive attention for 40 minutes. Donovyn Hunter and Agnes Emma-Nnopu have proven solid complements throughout the tournament.
Baylor’s backcourt is just as potent. Even without the injured Darianna Littlepage-Buggs, the Bears can rotate in four guards/forwards that can take over a game in Bella Fontleroy, Yaya Felder, Jada Walker and Sarah Andrews. Walker and Andrews carried the load against Oklahoma State with 21 combined points. Andrews also had 11 assists. Either Walker or Andrews will be defending Van Lith, which should be great theater.
But this game is liable to come down to the pivot, where Sedona Prince of TCU will face off against Aaronette Vonleh of Baylor for the third time.
Prince is coming off a double-double against West Virginia, as she scored 18 points and 16 rebounds. Vonleh dropped an incredible 37 points on OSU. Vonleh is one of the few players in the conference that can physically match up with Prince.
Last week, when the two teams met, Prince had 16 points and Vonleh had 17 points. Expect both to exceed that on Sunday.
In my full tournament predictions, I picked these two teams to make the championship game, and I picked Baylor to win it. I’ll stand by it.
Baylor 71, TCU 70
Big 12 Tournament Results
First Round: Wednesday
Game 1: No. 13 UCF 81, No. 12 BYU 69
Game 2: No. 9 Colorado 66, No. 16 Houston 58
Game 3: No. 15 Arizona State 82, No. 10 Cincinnati 75
Game 4: No. 14 Texas Tech 57, No. 11 Kansas 53
Second Round: Thursday
Game 5: No. 5 K-State 80, No. 13 UCF 65
Game 6: No. 9 Colorado 61, No. 8 Arizona 58
Game 7: No. 7 Iowa State 96, No. 15 Arizona State 88
Game 8: No. 14 Texas Tech 75, No. 6 Utah 64
Quarterfinals: Friday
Game 9: No. 4 West Virginia 73 No. 5 Kansas State 69
Game 10: No. 1 TCU 69 No. 9 Colorado 62
Game 11: No. 2 Baylor 69, No. 7 Iowa State 63
Game 12: No. 3 Oklahoma State 62, No. 14 Texas Tech 59
Semifinals: Saturday
Game 13: No. 1 TCU 71, No. 4 West Virginia 65
Game 14: No. 2 Baylor 84, No. 3 Oklahoma State 74
Final: Sunday
Game 15: No. 1 TCU vs. No. 2 Baylor, 4 p.m. CT, ESPN
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
