By Foster Nicholas | Sports Editor, Aidan Pham | Broadcast Sports Reporter
For the first time in Big 12 history, the regular season title was on the line in a winner-take-all game on the final day of the regular season. Trialing by 10 with one minute to play, Baylor senior guard Yaya Felder scored five points.
Missed the game? LTVN’s Aidan Pham catches you up on Sunday night’s game.
Following two missed free throws, the 17th-ranked Bears were a 3-pointer away from forcing overtime and igniting a nearly sold-out Foster Pavilion crowd. Head coach Nicki Collen entrusted Felder with the final shot with six seconds left.
On Senior Night, the guard tossed up a deep, contested triple that wedged between the rim and backboard before falling into No. 10 TCU’s grasp. Unable to overcome their worst shooting night of the season at 27.7% from the floor, the Bears lost the top spot in the Big 12 and saw their nine-game winning streak snapped in a 51-48 loss to the 10th-ranked Horned Frogs on Sunday evening.
“We wanted to be cutting a net down,” Collen said. “We’re not thinking about how many games in a row we’ve won, we’re thinking about the game today and what it meant. And obviously, [it] meant the same thing to both teams. Neither one of us was picked to win this league.”
Despite struggling offensively, Baylor (25-6, 15-3 Big 12) held TCU (28-3, 16-2 Big 12) to its second-lowest scoring game of the season, even without junior forward Darianna Littlepage-Buggs. The Horned Frogs shot 35.8% from the floor and missed five free throws, leaving the door open for the Bears to claw their way back.
“I thought both teams played good defense,” Collen said. “Their defensive game plan was really good against us. I mean, they executed it really, really well. Not everyone could do that because not everyone has a 6-foot-7 center.”
Baskets were hard to come by early, as the teams were a combined 4-for-17 from the floor before the first media timeout. Graduate center Sedona Prince had all three TCU buckets, but through five minutes, the Bears had forced two turnovers, a charge and a shot clock violation. Prince finished with 16 points on 7-for-17 shooting and grabbed 19 rebounds — her second-best performance of the season.
“I hope we get another chance to prove that we can beat them because I know that we can,” senior center Aaronette Vonleh said. “[There’s] not much that we have to do differently. I think just making our shots. I think tonight was one of those nights where the basket wasn’t really on our side, so we’ll definitely be more prepared if we face them again.”
The green and gold went without a field goal for 6:20 before junior forward Bella Fontleroy slipped past Agnes Emma-Nnopu, breaking her ankles with a baseline drive and layup with 20 seconds left in the first quarter. Prince continued to dominate the paint, scoring 10 points and helping the Horned Frogs build a 12-7 lead by the end of the quarter.
Vonleh, who was held scoreless in the first quarter, drilled the first two field goals of the second, the latter being an and-1 layup with 5:13 on the clock to trim the lead to 17-15. It was the Bears’ first bucket in nearly four minutes. Vonleh finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds — her fourth double-double of the season.
Felder took the reins from there. With 3:41 left in the half, she converted a contested layup, and 40 seconds later, she made another to even the game at 19-19. But just as Baylor was in striking range, the Horned Frogs responded with back-to-back threes in 36 seconds. The senior guard scored 17 points on 5-for-16 shooting with five rebounds.
Graduate guard Hailey Van Lith, who scored nine of her 14 points in the first half, sent TCU into the break with a step-back jumper at the buzzer, giving the Horned Frogs a 27-21 advantage.
Vonleh took over out of halftime, capitalizing on Prince’s defensive presence as Baylor’s guards struggled to attack the rim. She fueled an 8-2 run with three straight buckets.
After a missed free throw, Vonleh grabbed an offensive rebound. Failing to find an open teammate, she backed down Prince and spun an up-and-under layup off the glass to cut the deficit to 32-30 with 5:57 left in the third. The Foster Pavilion erupted, forcing a timeout less than a minute later.
“We learned a lot in this game,” graduate guard Sarah Andrews said. “Next time the ball is not falling, we’ll get a little more stops on defense. So I think it’s a lot of learning lessons that we did in this game. But I think it’s gonna make us even more hungry going into the tournament.”
The timeout didn’t slow Baylor’s momentum. Felder sank two free throws to tie the game, and Vonleh’s layup at the 3:46 mark gave the Bears their first lead since 3-2. The run extended to 13-2 over a 4 1/2-minute stretch.
The third quarter was the only one where Baylor shot above 30%, but its lead lasted just 1:08 before TCU answered. The Horned Frogs kept pace for the remainder of the quarter, taking a 38-36 lead into the final 10 minutes.
But just when the green and gold had edged their way back into the game, one of its worst shooting stretches of the season derailed any momentum.
The Bears endured a 1-for-15 slump for the first 8:55 of the fourth quarter as TCU built its first double-digit lead. The Horned Frogs drained three triples to stretch their advantage, while Baylor managed just a jumper and a free throw.
“We shot the ball pretty bad tonight, but I think we played a great game of defense,” Andrews said. “We’ve still got more basketball left to play, so [we’re focused on] just carrying our defense over, knowing that offense comes. We’ll get in the gym and we’ll put it all back together.”
With 1:05 left in the game, Felder flew in to give the Bears one last push for a Big 12 regular season title. Within 20 seconds, she drilled a jumper and a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 49-44 — more buckets than the team had in the last 11 1/2 minutes of game time.
After Felder’s triple, the Horned Frogs called a timeout, but the ensuing possession came up empty as Vonleh came away with her only steal of the game. With a two-on-one going down the court, Felder lost her grasp of the ball near the free-throw line, and TCU came away with the ball.
Horned Frogs head coach Matt Campbell raced onto the floor, tugging the sleeve of an official to call a timeout. Due to the noise level of the Pavilion, Campbell was only handed a warning for being out of the coaching box and TCU jogged back to the bench to talk things over.
A heated Collen ran to each official, screaming and asking why a technical hadn’t been called –– addressing them one after the other.
“They said it’s loud in Foster, and they couldn’t hear him,” Collen said. “So, you know, he did what he had to do to get a timeout.”
From there, Baylor went to the foul plan, hacking senior guard Madison Conner on the inbound pass. Conner, an 86% free throw shooter, doinked the first and made the second as the scoreboard showed 50-44. The Bears called a timeout, and junior forward Bella Fontleroy whiffed on a 3-point attempt. Streaking from the corner, senior guard Jada Walker snagged an offensive rebound and tossed a layup over her head backward to make it a 50-46 game.
Nineteen seconds on the clock.
After another timeout, the Horned Frogs couldn’t get the ball in the net within five seconds. Turnover. Baylor’s ball. Six seconds later, Vonleh threw up a layup to pull the game within two.
Thirteen seconds on the clock.
Out of timeouts, TCU hurried to inbound the ball, and Fontleroy fouled out of the game while diving for a steal. Nine seconds left. Van Lith hit one of two free throws at the line, and Collen used her final timeout to draw up one last play.
Felder took the ball at midcourt and pulled up from long range. The Foster Pavilion went silent, then the ball wedged between the rim and backboard, falling into TCU’s grasp. Again, the Horned Frogs missed the first free throw.
“Yaya just loves the hoop, she’s a hooper,” Collen said. “[She’s] an emotional kid. It’s her strength and her Achilles heel. She wants to do well… That kid just cares a lot.”
Soon after, the second rolled off the rim, and a full-court heave by Andrews fell short. From a once commanding position, the Horned Frogs picked up their first ever league title by millimeters.
“Yeah, of course [we want to play TCU in the Big 12 tournament],” Collen said. “I’m a competitor. Our kids are competitors, and they’ve proved that. They’ve proved that all year long, and in particular down the stretch.”
The Bears return to action as the No. 2 seed in the 2025 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship quarterfinals at 5:30 p.m. Friday at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo.
