FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Olivia Miles had her 12th career triple-double with 12 points and career highs of 16 rebounds and 14 assists as third-seeded TCU beat UC San Diego 86-40 in a first-round NCAA Tournament game on Friday, giving the Horned Frogs their 43rd consecutive win at home.
Miles has the assists on the first four baskets for the Frogs as they went ahead to stay, going up 11-2 in the first 2:02 of the game. They scored the final 19 points of the game to make the final score the largest margin.
“You saw within the first four minutes of the game the pep, the pop she played with. I mean she was in attack mode,” TCU coach Mark Campbell said. “When Olivia’s like that, our team feeds off it and we’re at a whole different level.”
Taylor Bigby added a career-high 27 points on 8-of-10 shooting with seven 3-pointers for TCU (30-5), which also got double-doubles from Clara Silva (13 points, 11 rebounds) and Marta Suarez (11 points, 10 rebounds).
Miles became only the third player with multiple triple-doubles in women's NCAA Tournament games, with her other coming while at Notre Dame in 2022. She came out of the game right after her 3-pointer with 4:50 left for a 74-40 lead. Her 14 assists set TCU's single-game record, matching her best set at Notre Dame.
She already had a double-double at halftime with 10 rebounds and 10 assists, to go along with four points when TCU led 48-25.
“It's a different sense of urgency that I came with and I promised myself that I’d help my team out in any way that I can,” Miles said. “I know that it starts with me, and attacking the glass early so I have the ball in my hands and I can control it was favorable for us.”
Erin Condron had 12 points to lead UC San Diego (24-9), which under coach Heidi VanDerveer has made the NCAA Tournament in both seasons since gaining full Division I postseason eligibility.
“I don’t know if the score indicated how hard that we played, but the basket got big for them, and obviously they’re an excellent team,” VanDerveer said. “They have a tremendous point guard. They have shooters that spread us out, bigs inside, very complete team.”
At home in March
TCU is hosting NCAA games at home for the second season in a row, after not making the tournament since 2010 before that.
While there were some empty seats at Schollmaier Arena, it was a solid and loud crowd for a Friday game that started at 11 a.m. local time. The place will be certainly be packed Sunday.
Other triple-doubles
The last women's NCAA Tournament triple-double was Caitlin Cark for Iowa against Louisville on March 26, 2023, when she had 41 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists.
Sabrina Ionescu with Oregon in 2018 and 2019, and Nicole Powell for Stanford in back-to-back games in 2002 are the other players with multiple triple-doubles in the NCAA Tournament. Miles’ first one came with Notre Dame in 2022, when she had 12 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in a first-round game against Massachusetts.
Up next
TCU will look to advance to the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row when it host the winner of Friday's other first-round game in Fort Worth: Washington or South Dakota State.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
