Women's basketball plays Wyoming today in conference tourney

The women’s basketball team will rely on Natalie Ventress and a strong performance from the bench as it finishes its tenure in the Mountain West Conference with a final conference tournament.

The Lady Frogs enter the conference tournament off a four-game winning streak and is seeded fourth in the tournament. They will take on the Wyoming Cowgirls in the first round.

The game will feature two top first-year players with Ventress from the Lady Frogs and Kayla Woodward from the Cowgirls. The two players lead all first-year players in the MWC in scoring, with Ventress averaging 14 points per game and Woodward averaging 11.9 points per game.

Ventress, who won the 2011-12 Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year award, is the key to a Lady Frogs victory because she was the one player who could create her own shots, said Jeff Williams, the play-by-play announcer for the Lady Frogs.

The rotation of Ventress’ teammates played a major part for the Lady Frogs. In TCU’s 16 victories, the Lady Frogs’ bench outscored its opponents’ benches by a combined total of 220 points.

Williams said the biggest concern for the bench was whether the youth of the team would stand up to the pressure of the conference tournament.