TCU Women's Basketball Achieves Highest Ranking Ever at No. 9

 

After beating then-No. 3 Notre Dame, 76-68, and South Florida, 87-46, in the Cayman Islands Classic over the Thanksgiving holiday, the TCU women's basketball team on Monday, December 2, was rewarded with a No. 9 ranking in the AP Top 25 Women's College Basketball Poll.

The No. 9 ranking is the the highest ranking in the history of the TCU women’s basketball team, which previously was ranked 17th.

The Horned Frogs are now the highest-ranked Big 12 team for the first time in their 13 years of conference membership.

TCU is unbeaten in 2024, having won eight straight games.

The Horned Frogs beat Notre Dame for the first time ever by outscoring the Irish 31-12 in the fourth quarter.

The win is unquestionably the biggest in program history. The upset of the Irish is tied for the highest-ranked win in the 48-season existence of Horned Frogs women's basketball. It marked the fourth time TCU defeated a national No. 3 team. Prior to the win over Notre Dame, TCU last defeated an AP Top Three opponent on December 7, 2008, when it downed No. 3 Cal, 82-73.

With the win over the Irish, TCU pocketed its fifth all-time win over an AP Top Five foe.

The Horned Frogs earned their first top-10 win since defeating No. 7 Texas, 79-77, on January 10, 2018.

TCU has won two straight games vs. ranked opposition for just the third time in program history. The Frogs knocked off then-No. 13 NC State 76-73 on November 17.

The Frogs have beaten two ranked teams in the same season for the first time since 2019-20.

The Horned Frogs joined South Carolina as the only programs in the country, thus far this season, to defeat two preseason AP Top 10 teams.

With the win over South Florida, TCU extended its nonconference winning streak to 223 games overall and improved to 21-0 in nonconference tilts under second-year head coach Mark Campbell.

In their win over Notre Dame, the Frogs were led by Sedona Prince, is a transfer from the University of Oregon and who delivered the greatest single-game performance by a TCU women's basketball center. She scored 20 points and had 20 rebounds, eight blocks, four assists and three steals.

Prince became the first player in NCAA history to record at least 20 rebounds and eight blocks in a game against an AP Top-Five opponent. 

She became one of six players in Big 12 history to snag 20 boards against a Top-Five foe. 

Prince also joined TCU Athletics Hall of Famer Sandora Irvin as one of two Frogs to post a 20-point, 20-rebound game and the first in 20 years to do so. Irvin accomplished the feat on February 2, 2004. 

Prince's 20 rebounds are the most in a game by any Division 1 player against a ranked team thus far in 2024-25.

Prince produced her 17th double-double in purple and white. 

Prince's 20 rebounds were a career best.

Prince stuffed three-or-more shots for the 20th time in her career.

Against South Florida, Prince had a 17-point, 13-rebound double-double. She was named Cayman Islands Classic Tournament MVP.

Prince's performances against Notre Dame and South Florida earned her Big 12 Player of the Week honors for the fourth time in her career. She is one of two players in program history, alongside all-time leading scorer Lauren Heard, to win the award four times. Prince also joined Kansas State center Ayoka Lee as one of two active Big 12 players to garner the accolade on at least four occasions.

In addition to Prince, who is a graduate student, the Horned Frogs' stars include Hailey Van Lith, a transfer from LSU and a graduate student, and senior Madison Conner, a transfer from Arizona.

Prince and Conner played with the Frogs last season. Van Lith is in her first season with TCU.

Other featured Horned Frogs are: Taylor Bigby, a redshirt junior transfer from Oregon; sophomore Donovyn Hunter, a transfer from Oregon State; senior Una Jovanovic, a transfer from Cal State Fullerton; graduate student Agnes Emma-Nnopu, a transfer from Stanford; and junior Aaliyah Robertson.

The Frogs play Florida Atlantic in TCU's Schollmaier Arena on Wednesday, December 4, at 6:30 pm (Central).

On Sunday, December 8, TCU will play reigning national champion and third-ranked South Carolina (7-1) at 6 pm (Central) in Fort Worth's Dickies Arena. It will be the first Top-10 matchup in TCU women's basketball history. The game will be televised by ESPN2.