Women's team falls in Big Dance

DURHAM, N.C. - The IU women's basketball team's gig as post-season Cinderella ended last night. A feisty horned frog wouldn't transform into a prince, preventing any further fairy tales for IU. The ninth-seeded Hoosiers (17-14) applied tight defense against eight-seeded Texas Christian (24-6) in IU's first NCAA tournament game since 1995.\nBut the Hoosiers' offense didn't hold up its end of the bargain, shooting 23.5 percent from the field en route to a 55-45 first-round loss at Cameron Indoor Stadium.\nThe Lady Frogs face Duke, who defeated Norfolk State last night, in the second round Sunday.\nBetween IU and TCU, two coarse defenses grinded against each other. TCU shot 33.3 percent from the field (20-of-60) and committed 21 turnovers. But IU scored only 45 points, its second-lowest point production of the season, and had 20 turnovers.\n"We really did play a good defensive game," associate head coach Trish Betthauser said. "Fifty-five points, and we ended up fouling at the end. They ended up getting quite a few free throws in the end. You hope that if you play that kind of defense you come out on top, but when you're shooting 33 percent, that hurts your chances." The Hoosiers shot 18.5 percent in the first half (5-of-27), including 1-of-8 for three-pointers. Without senior Erin McGinnis (11 points, 3-of-6 shooting), the Hoosiers would have been 2-of-21 from the field before halftime.\nTCU forward Sandora Irvin scored the first basket, a three-pointer in front of IU's bench. The Hoosiers never led - but they never trailed by more than 11.\nThe Frogs led 25-20 at halftime, but the Hoosiers inched back to within one at 27-26 at 16:38 on center Jill Chapman's 6-0 run. But TCU ignited a 12-5 run, pulling ahead 39-31. \nThe Frogs still couldn't pull away, and IU cut the deficit to 41-37 with 4:33 left after Chapman hit two foul shots. But TCU point guard Ashanti Nix hit her only three-pointer to gain control. The Hoosiers committed eight fouls in the final 3:30 to put the Frogs into the bonus. IU had two fouls to TCU's 10 at 3:03.\nThe loss ends IU's surprising late-season run. The ninth-seeded Hoosiers earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament by upsetting the fourth, first and second seeds en route to the Big Ten tournament title 11 days earlier.\n"I'm extremely proud of this team and what they've accomplished," IU head coach Kathi Bennett said. "I feel that we played good enough defense to win this game. I was disappointed in the\nsecond half. I did not feel we rebounded defensively and that really hurt us. We just were rushed offensively. We never regained our poise on the offensive end."\nMcGinnis led IU with 13 points - two in the second half - on 3-of-9 shooting and 6-of-6 on foul shots. Chapman earned her 16th double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds after scoring one point off a free throw in the first half.\nTCU coach Jeff Mittie said his team focused on keeping the ball away from Chapman, who led IU this season with 16.3 points per game.\n"In order to keep the ball out of Chapman's hands, we were going to have to get great ball pressure," sad Mittie, whose team advances to the second round for the second consecutive year. "I thought our mix was fantastic. I thought our guard pressure was outstanding." IU point guard Heather Cassady, the most outstanding player at the Big Ten tournament, was limited to eight points, six assists and two turnovers. She finished 2-of-8 from the field and 1-of-7 for threes.\n"I think they wanted to pressure me full-court," Cassady said. "They just kept on bringing people off the bench. They did well on that and it took us out of sets"