Sedona Prince’s season-high 31 points leads TCU to 76-73 upset of No. 13 NC State

TCU upset No. 13 North Carolina State 76-73 on Sunday at Schollmaier Arena — thanks in part to Sedona Prince’s season-high scoring outburst.

The win was TCU women’s first over an AP-ranked opponent since beating No. 18 Texas A&M in December 2021.

The win was the first-ranked win of the Mark Campbell era and is one of three high-profile non-conference games the Horned Frogs will play this year.

After the game, Campbell spoke about what this win said about his team.

“That’s the part that you have to you have to go through it, and you didn’t know how our team would respond. It couldn’t be more proud composure, and understanding,” said Campbell, “I mean, you have just a list of kids that have competed at the highest level of college basketball, and so it showed today.”

The Horned Frogs had a double-digit lead going into the fourth quarter’s final minutes, and that’s when their offense cooled off.

The Horned Frogs failed to make a field goal for three minutes near the end of the game but a layup from Taylor Bigby with 8.4 seconds remaining secured the win.

NC State had a chance to tie the game at the end with a 3-pointer from Aziaha James, who had been excellent, scoring 27 points, but couldn’t connect on her final shot.

Sedona Prince dominates

Prince dominated the Wolfpack bigs and stuffed the stat sheet with 31 points, 16 rebounds, two blocks and three assists.

Her 31 points surpassed her previous high of 29 points set earlier this season against Houston Christian.

Prince scored in double digits for the 25th consecutive game with the Horned Frogs and was a constant mismatch in the post on both ends of the court.

Campbell said Prince delivered at the highest level.

“Sedona’s growth since we’ve had her has just been incredible. I’ll argue this is maybe her best game of her college career, against a really good team to go for 31 points, 16 rebounds, three assists, zero turnovers,” said Campbell. “You guys, for a true center to do that, protect the rim. Obviously, a lot of our stuff goes through Sedona on the offensive end. To play 40 minutes that hard is incredible. But Sedona, she’s ready for this moment.”

Prince got into foul trouble late in the game, picking up her fourth foul with 3:53 left, but Campbell said he knew he could trust the Oregon transfer.

“There’s a lot of trust built when you allow a kid to play through that stuff, and when they have fouls, and you show a lot of faith in them, and that’s part of the veteran group that we have. She’s played in a lot of basketball games. And if we’re going to lose, I’m going to lose, because we go down swinging,” said Campbell.

Bigby’s big game

Bigby’s game-sealing buckets capped off a nice performance for the redshirt junior transfer from USC. She had 10 points, five rebounds and two blocks and was the team’s best three-point shooter on the night, going 2 for 3.

Hailey Van Lith said Bigby was scratching the surface of what she could be and that her flexibility playing the three or the four makes her a difficult guard for most teams.

“[Bigby] is a big-time player for us. She has fully embraced her role, and her role is very impactful for us on this team. So I’m really excited for her. I think that she has even another level that she could tap into, but she’s a matchup problem when she plays the four for us,” Van Lith said.

Van Lith sets season-high in assists

Van Lith came into the game as the only player in the nation averaging at least 17 points, seven rebounds and seven assists per game and hit a career milestone during the game when she scored her 2,000th point.

Despite struggling from 3-point range (1 of 7) and the field (8 of 24) Van Lith was still effective finding open teammates, especially Prince, for open buckets.

After the game, Van Lith talked about the burgeoning connection between her and Prince.

“Yeah, no, it’s easy. It’s all about making reads and Sedona has a great feel for the game. She’s easy for me to play with, she has great tempo. She knows when to roll, she knows when to pop, and she can hit shots,” said Van Lith. “So it doesn’t take a whole lot of chemistry when you’re just two really good basketball players.”

Prince agreed, saying Van Lith was an elite floor general.

“Playing with her is so just, like, relieving, just because, like, she’s gonna make the right move, right choice every single time and so same thing, like when you play with really high-level players and then smart players, it just it works almost immediately,” said Prince.

Van Lith’s 10 assists surpassed her previous season high of nine set against Texas State.

After the big win, Van Lith said she isn’t worried about a letdown, saying the team expected to come out and win.

“I mean, honestly, we were very confident in our system. We know NC State is a great team. They’re a great team, they’re experienced. They were in the Final Four last year, but we also were very confident in ourselves. So I don’t really, I don’t expect us to ride this high very much, because I think that we were kind of expecting to come in here and win. We were just waiting for the opportunity,” said Van Lith.

TCU will net play Incarnate Word at 12 p.m. on Thursday at Schollmaier Arena.