Storrs, Conn. - The MSU women's basketball team made it clear it wasn't going home without putting up a fight.
The Spartans (17-12) tallied 11 points in the game's final 1:22 - just one less than their entire first-half total - to pull within one before falling to Texas Christian, 50-47, in the first round of the Women's NCAA Tournament on Sunday.
"I'm proud of our fight and it's too bad we're not moving on," MSU head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "We went for broke (at the end), if we would've had that attitude throughout the game, we would've won."
Senior forward Syreeta Bromfield drained a 3-pointer with 44 seconds left in the game to close the gap to four, 45-41. Lady Frog guard Candace Baldwin missed the front end of a one-and-one and junior forward Julie Pagel converted a layup on other end of the court to bring MSU within two with 23 seconds to go.
Baldwin returned to the charity stripe and hit one of two free throws.
MSU freshman forward Liz Shimek responded with another layup to cut the deficit to one, 46-45.
TCU (18-13) countered with two free throws and Bromfield answered back with a layup of her own, bringing the Spartans back within one, 48-47, with three seconds on the clock.
MSU was pressed to foul, but lost track of Lady Frog guard Ebony Shaw, who broke away and sealed the deal with a fastbreak layup to end the game.
"It was an opportunity and we didn't cash in on it, but in the years to come hopefully we can get back here," freshman guard Lindsay Bowen said.
After a low-scoring first half that left the Lady Frogs leading 17-12, TCU forward Tiffany Evans broke the game wide open, netting the first eight points after the break to help her team to a 27-12 advantage.
MSU went the first seven minutes of the second half without a bucket until Bromfield drained a 3-pointer.
Bowen followed up with eight points in the next 1:30 and Pagel hit a pair from the line to pull the Spartans back within seven, 32-25.
MSU's defense managed to slow the Lady Frogs down over the next 10 minutes, but could not find the bottom of the net, shooting a gruesome 26.6 percent from the floor for the game.
In the final game of her career, Bromfield went out with a bang, tallying game-highs of 18 points and 15 rebounds, while scoring 10 of her team's 12 first-half points.
"The first half wasn't great defense or anything, we just weren't playing the way we could play," Bromfield said. "Nobody could put the ball in the hole."
Bromfield wasn't kidding, either.
A scrappy start saw just 29 combined points on the scoreboard at the break.
The Lady Frogs were 6-of-24 from the field (25 percent) and the Spartans were 5-of-24 (20.8 percent).
"That's as physical a game as we've had all year," TCU head coach Jeff Mittie said. "I'm just happy to be surviving right now."
TCU advances to play Connecticut (32-1) at 9:15 p.m. on Tuesday.
The Huskies advanced to the second round by downing Boston (16-15) 91-44 on Sunday.
