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PROVO — It's been a rough season for TCU women's basketball, losing All-American center Sedona Prince to injury and Arizona transfer Madison Conner for the better part of the past month.
At one point, the Horned Frogs had to forfeit games against Kansas State and Iowa State in Big 12 play due to a lack of available players, and held on-campus tryouts just to fill out a roster.
By Wednesday night, the roster was fine.
Aaliyah Roberson poured in a career-high 23 points and 13 rebounds, and Agnes Emma-Nnopu added 17 points, nine rebounds and three assists as TCU handed BYU a second consecutive home loss 68-58 Wednesday night in the Marriott Center.
"These are two kids that are playing out of position; Aaliyah is not a center, and Agnes isn't a post player," said TCU coach Mark Campbell, the former Oregon assistant in his first season in Fort Worth after two years at Sacramento State. "But that's all we've got; Agnes played 40 minutes tonight and Aaliyah played 39.
"But they're two quiet warriors; they don't talk much, and when they step on the court they are absolute soldiers and hard-nosed competitors. They've had to play the post every game against Big 12 teams, and tonight they were elite."
Lauren Gustin had 13 points, 16 rebounds and four assists for the Cougars (15-13, 5-10 Big 12), who got 10 points apiece from Kaylee Smiler and Lauren Davenport.
corner threeeeee 🎯
— BYU Women's Hoops (@byuwbb) February 22, 2024
link to watch👉https://t.co/o4pJuOzvFepic.twitter.com/eXWmOk7Y2W
The rest of BYU's seven-player rotation — a group of Amari Whiting, Kailey Woolston, Emma Calvert and Rose Bubakar — combined to score 25 points on 8-of-31 shooting, including 2-of-13 from 3-point range.
Whiting did all her scoring in the first quarter, finishing with 7 points and five assists, and Bubakar added 8 points.
As a whole, BYU shot just 34% from the field, 29% from deep, and were outrebounded 40-33 by TCU.
Suddenly, those forfeits — like TCU's 25-game road losing streak the Frogs snapped with a 79-72 win at Cincinnati — feel like a long time ago. Same with BYU's three-game win streak that came apart in a 70-62 home loss to Kansas.
"No moral victories, for sure. This is a game that we dropped, and we should not have. We know that," BYU second-year head coach Amber Whiting said. "We took a good hard look at ourselves in the locker room together so that we can be open, honest and upfront with each other.
"We've got to get back to playing how we play, to have way more assists than we had tonight (14 on 21 made field goals), and get back to shooting how we shoot the ball. There are a lot of things that we've got to address this week, and we've got to do it fast."
What the Horned Frogs (17-9, 4-9 Big 12) had, though, was enough to capture their second Big 12 road win in three years after shooting 40% from the field and 14-of-29 from 3-point range.
Emma-Nnopu had 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting, including three 3-pointers, to go along with three rebounds, an assist and a block, and Roberson added 8 points and eight rebounds as the Frogs took a 29-27 edge into halftime.
After a brief back-and-forth start, Campbell held up his team during a potential transition run and told the group to slow down.
After the Frogs did, they responded with a 39-31 second half en route to the 10-point win.
"We've got to control the tempo and find a way to play at our pace," Campbell said. "Our margin for error is really small, and they're growing up in understanding how to manage the game within the game. Offensively, this was one of our better performances. I just wish we would have made a few more free throws down the stretch."
TCU opened the second half with a 10-2 spurt, and outscored the Cougars 21-11 in the third quarter to begin to pull away for good.
Davenport scored 7 of her 10 points in the fourth, including a finish at the rim to pull the Cougars within 7 with 1:47 left, but TCU immediately responded with a 3-pointer from Roberson, and the hosts could get no closer.
"That's Dav; she's my wild card out there," Whiting said. "You saw her randomly just go trap players, and she'll give you 100% of what she has all the time. That's why I left her out there."
The Cougars travel to Ames, Iowa, for Saturday's tipoff against Iowa State (5 p.m. MST, ESPN+) before returning for the regular-season home finale next Wednesday, Feb. 28 against fellow Big 12 newcomer Houston.
