TCU women's basketball team adds 4 walk-ons after holding open tryouts
FORT WORTH – The Texas Christian University women's basketball team is bouncing back after multiple players were sidelined due to injuries.
As a result of the injuries, the team had to forfeit two games and held open tryouts last week.
Four walk-ons have been added to the roster following the tryouts – Piper Davis, Ella Hamlin, Mekhayla Moore and Sarah Sylvester.
Sylvester is currently a middle blocker on the TCU women's volleyball team and has become the first TCU student-athlete in the Big 12 era to play varsity basketball and volleyball, according to the university.
Sedona Prince, a 6-foot-7 graduate transfer from Oregon, broke the ring finger on her right hand in the opening seconds of TCU's first game this calendar year, a matchup of undefeated Big 12 teams at Baylor. She still played the entire game, and finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds in the 71-50 loss on Jan. 3.
Jaden Owens, the Baylor transfer who was the Big 12's active leader in assists, suffered a torn ACL and meniscus in her right knee in the first half at Houston on Jan. 13, the Frogs' fourth consecutive loss. Madison Conner, the junior guard who came to TCU from Arizona, then injured her MCL in practice after the team returned home and sophomore guard DaiJa Turner announced she had season-ending ankle surgery.
The Frogs were down to only six available scholarship players, with two of those on limited minutes coming off injuries, going into a scheduled home game against Top 10 team Kansas State. Though the Wildcats were already in Fort Worth to play, TCU forfeited that game and one last Saturday at Iowa State. While those count as losses in the Big 12 standings, they aren't reflected in TCU's overall 15-4 record.
"It was the right decision to make, it was a hard decision to make," TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati said. "Not unprecedented. It's unusual."
There is no minimum roster threshold in the Big 12, something Donati expects to be addressed by the conference. Under current rules, a Big 12 school unable to field a team forfeits if no extraordinary circumstances exist, instead of being able to reschedule games.
The Frogs returned to the court Tuesday night, defeating the University of Central Florida 66-60.
"Just been decimated by the injury bug, you have open tryouts midyear, we haven't played 5-on-5, and you show up and you get a Big 12 win," said head coach Mark Campbell. "It's been a special, hard two weeks."
