BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — TCU’s historic season survived a nail-biting 71-62 win over No. 3 seed Notre Dame on Saturday.
The win sends the Horned Frogs to their first Elite Eight in program history and continues a remarkable turnaround season for coach Mark Campbell after finishing 21-12 and missing the NCAA Tournament last season.
In what was expected to be a back-and-forth game, TCU hung with the Irish even when they went down by nine points with 5:51 left in the third quarter. The Horned Frogs used the free-throw line to cut into that third-quarter deficit, making 8 of 8 shots from the line and turning up the physicality.
Led by a wealth of experience from their transfer-heavy team, the Horned Frogs outscored the Irish 14-6 to end the third quarter and trailed by one point. Hailey Van Lith led TCU with 26 points and had a key steal and block to spark the third-quarter turnaround.
TCU will meet the winner of No. 1 seed Texas and No. 5 seed Tennessee in the Elite Eight with a trip to the first Final Four on the line.
Campbell’s rebuild plan paying off quickly
When Campbell took over the program last season, he knew he had a rebuild coming. He took over a program that not only had never been to the Sweet 16 but also hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament in 14 straight seasons.
He decided to rely heavily on the transfer portal in hopes of jump-starting some success, and it paid off.
“I want to give a lot of credit to my staff. We value our culture,” Campbell said after Saturday’s win. “We value getting the right personalities, egos, alphas. As you put together a team, you have your basketball piece and your style of play — you’ve got to get that piece right, and I think that’s what most people spend their time on. But you’ve got to get the locker room right. So we have worked incredibly hard to vet and try to get the right pieces.”
Van Lith took over in the second half, but center Sedona Prince was the catalyst inside Saturday with 21 points and six rebounds. In fact, TCU got no points from its bench; all of its 71 points came from its starters, who were transfers.
Van Lith’s NCAA Tournament resume shining again
All Van Lith has done in her career is win.
The graduate senior guard made the Elite Eight three times at Louisville, including one Final Four, an Elite Eight last year with LSU and is now the leading cog for the Horned Frogs this year. The win made her the first player in either men’s or women’s college basketball to reach the Elite Eight five times.
“Yeah, I think at this point I just have ultimate confidence and faith in myself to compete at an intense level,” Van Lith said. “What I’ve learned through my experience in these tournaments is you can’t always ask yourself to make every shot, but if you’re willing to compete and lay it all out there every game, you’re giving yourself a better shot than a lot of other people are out there.”
Van Lith’s offensive game was on full display, as she made 10 of 21 shots, but it was her defense that sparked a turnaround in the third quarter.
With TCU down nine points, she made two straight baskets, forced a steal on Notre Dame’s Sonia Citron and then had a block on the next defensive possession.
“She’s a dawg. She’s going to do anything it takes to win. She just has that competitive edge.”
Madison Conner talks about Hailey Van Lith’s impact on this TCU team.#MarchMadness x @tcuwbb pic.twitter.com/mveYv06Bgf
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“I think Hailey is a dog, regardless if it’s the offensive end or defensive end regardless, she is going to do anything it takes to win. She has a competitive edge,” Madison Conner said. “She knows what it takes to win at an extremely high level, and she doesn’t care if she makes all of her shots … defensively we know we can count on her.”
Van Lith is known for her competitiveness and has been TCU’s leader all season and showed up again Saturday, in a big way. The Washington native scored 18 of her 26 points in the second half.
Poor shooting dooms Irish against bigger TCU
The Irish struggled on the boards against TCU, losing the rebounding battle 38-32 to the Horned Frogs, but they also struggled to score inside and out.
Notre Dame shot just 31 percent from the field in the game and made just 3 of 15 shots from 3.
“I just knew that if we continued to make them take tough shots over us, it was going to be in our favor,” Van Lith said.
The Irish battled inside with TCU, but the size seemed to be too much as the Irish couldn’t convert contested layups and couldn’t open things up from deep in key moments.
This is the fourth year in a row Notre Dame has lost in the Sweet 16 under coach Niele Ivey.
(Photo of Hailey Van Lith and Hannah Hidalgo: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)
