ESPN Analytics gave TCU a 3.8 percent chance of beating West Virginia last Wednesday night after Mountaineer guard Jordan Harrison sank a 15-foot jumper with 11 seconds left. 

Down 49-46, junior guard Donovyn Hunter stepped to the free throw line and made both attempts, pulling the Frogs within one with three seconds remaining. TCU immediately fouled Harrison, who had made all seven of her free-throw attempts to that point. But she clanked the first on this trip, leaving the door open. 

On the final possession, stretch forward Marta Suárez received a bouncing sideline inbound pass from Hunter, briefly facing up her defender before launching a three-pointer from the top of the arc. Two, one. The shot sailed high through the air, catching the left side of the rim and twirling through the nylon as the backboard’s LED lights illuminated red. 

Teammates swarmed Suárez at midcourt as the No. 10 Horned Frogs escaped with their fifth Big 12 victory, improving to 17-1 on the season.

Marta Suárez’s buzzer-beating three-pointer lifted the Horned Frogs to a 51-50 road victory over West Virginia on Jan. 14. Courtesy of TCU Athletics

Suárez, who has enjoyed a career season but was 3-for-18 shooting for the game and 0-for-5 from three-point range prior to the winner, showed no hesitation in the crucial moment. 

“It’s just the work that I put in. I know I’m a shooter. I’ve done that before,” the graduate transfer said in the postgame press conference. “And then, honestly, just my teammates, you know. We’ve had a great trip, and just coming out and knowing that I have a chance to get a win for them, and knowing how much it means for everybody, kind of just pushes me forward.” 

TCU coach Mark Campbell echoed that resilience: “We just grinded and stayed in a fight, defended like crazy for 40 minutes. That gave us a chance and an opportunity to steal the game.” 

The Wildcats Come to Town

The dramatic finish keeps TCU in a two-way tie for second in the conference standings with a dozen Big 12 contests remaining in the regular season. Saturday brings to Schollmaier Arena the Arizona Wildcats, whose 75-72 win over BYU on Jan. 6 stands as the squad’s only Big 12 victory to date. 

Veteran guard Veronica Sheffey logged a season-high 17 minutes during TCU’s Jan. 14 win at West Virginia. Courtesy of TCU Athletics

Arizona’s Adia Barnes era is no more. The now-SMU coach’s Tucson tenure saw seven consecutive winning seasons, peaking with a trip to the National Championship in 2021. Under first-year head coach Becky Burke, who led Buffalo to a WNIT championship last year in her third season with the Bulls, the Wildcats have dropped four of their last five. 

Arizona will be without its leading scorer. Senior guard Mickayla Perdue suffered a recent wrist injury and is out indefinitely. The Cleveland State transfer was averaging a team-best 17.1 points per game. In her absence last Saturday, the Wildcats managed just 55 points in a loss to UCF at home.

They’ll still have senior guard Noelani Cornfield, who ranks fourth in the Big 12 with 119 total assists and is Arizona’s primary playmaker. Her 7.4 assists per game are more than triple that of any other Wildcat. 

Next Up: Buckeyes, Then Unbeaten Red Raiders 

Two days later, TCU faces perhaps its greatest test of the season at the Coretta Scott King Classic. The Horned Frogs travel to Newark, New Jersey, to meet No. 14 Ohio State on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, with tipoff set for 11 a.m. CT on FOX as part of a doubleheader at the Prudential Center. 

The Buckeyes bring a five-game winning streak into the matchup, including an 89-76 dismantling of No. 12 Maryland last Sunday. Sophomore guard Jaloni Cambridge poured in 28 points over 40 minutes in that victory, narrowly missing a triple-double with nine rebounds and eight assists. 

Then on Feb. 1, the Frogs face still-undefeated and 17th-ranked Texas Tech, which at 19-0 is off to its best start in program history. Having cracked the AP top 25 for the first time in 14 years, the Lady Raiders appear poised to snap a 12-year NCAA Tournament drought. 

Tech guards Bailey Maupin and Snudda Collins are both shooting better than 35 percent from three while averaging 15.4 and 14.3 points per game, respectively. Meanwhile, 6-foot-2 junior Jalynn Bristow averages 7.1 boards and 2.1 blocks per game, placing her second in the category among Big 12 players. 

The showdown in Lubbock will be the lone regular-season meeting between the teams and very likely pivotal in determining who tops the standings heading into the conference tournament in March. 

— Corey Zapata-Smith