South Medford grad scores career-high 18 to help Horned Frogs reach NCAA women’s basketball Sweet 16 for first time

When Medford’s Donovyn Hunter opted to enter the transfer portal a year ago and wound up selecting TCU, it was not without a bit of a gamble.

Hunter had just guided Oregon State to the Elite Eight as a freshman point guard — a Final Four berth denied by a narrow loss to eventual NCAA women’s champion South Carolina — and the Horned Frogs weren’t all that far removed from needing campus tryouts to fill out its roster.

A little faith can also produce great rewards, and that’s exactly where Hunter finds herself these days in what has developed into a history making campaign for TCU.

The second-seeded Horned Frogs (33-3) advanced past the second round for the first time in school history Sunday with an 85-70 win over seventh-seeded Louisville in Fort Worth, Texas, continuing a breakthrough season that hadn’t even made the NCAA field in 15 years and last won a tourney game in 2006.

The first-time Big 12 champion Horned Frogs — in their second season under head coach Mark Campbell — advanced to Birmingham, Alabama, for a Sweet 16 matchup with No. 3-seeded Notre Dame (28-5) on Saturday.

“I think it’s cool to come into a program and see the beginning point of it,” Hunter said after Sunday’s resounding win over the Cardinals. “Talking to Mark and seeing the vision he had for the team — and all of us transfers that came in and trusted his process and the plan that he had for us — I think he took a huge risk on us and we took a risk on this program, not necessarily knowing what it was going to come out of.”

“It’s really cool to sit back and watch it and to be lucky enough to be a part of it,” she added, “but I’m not surprised at all that we’re breaking all of these record points in history (for TCU). It’s all a testament, really, to just the team.”

Hunter played a pivotal role in the second-round victory, scoring a career-high 18 points on 6-for-6 shooting from the field — 4-for-4 from 3-point range — to go with six rebounds and four assists in 39 minutes.

The 6-foot sophomore made her first 3-pointer with 1:59 left in the first quarter to start a 17-0 run that put the Horned Frogs ahead to stay. She made consecutive 3s to open the second quarter, scoring 11 of TCU’s first 26 points to complement a stellar showing by Agnes Emma-Nnopu as the duo outscored Louisville over the game’s opening 20 minutes.

Emma-Nnopu, a graduate student, scored 16 of her season-high 23 points in the first half, joining Hunter in being the beneficiary of TCU star guard Hailey Van Lith breaking down the Cardinals’ frantic defense.

Van Lith finished with 10 assists and 16 points to counter Louisville’s effort, freely taking what she could get on the offensive end and trusting her teammates.

“They actually switched up their coverage a lot,” Van Lith said afterwards. “Sometimes they switched, sometimes they trapped, sometimes they just hedged. They showed us a lot. At the beginning of the game, there’s always a bunch of energy pent up, and I think once we rode that wave a little bit, I was able to just find my shooters.”

“The game wouldn’t have been the same if they wouldn’t have stepped up the way they did,” she added. “So, you know, teams can keep doubling me and I’m going to keep giving it to my teammates, because they’re putting points on the board.”

Sedona Prince also had 19 points, while TCU’s third-leading scorer behind graduate students Van Lith and Prince — senior Madison Conner — scored nine.

“They delivered in the biggest game in our program history, but they’ve been delivering all year,” Campbell said when asked of the contributions by Hunter and Emma-Nnopu. “One of the things we have is serious firepower, and it’s kind of a pick-your-poison.”

“Donovyn and Agnes — all these kids — they work so hard and get their reps in every single day in that practice facility,” he added. “Those two kids live in it, and not just them but we have a roster full of it. It’s just neat when you see young people work really hard at their craft and then for it to be rewarded in a game like this on a stage like this, it’s awesome.”

Hunter started 34 of 35 games last season for Oregon State — guiding the Beavers to a 27-8 record — and was named to the Pac-12 Conference All-Freshman team as well as earning honorable mention status for the All-Defensive team.

The former South Medford standout logged a team-high 972 minutes and averaged 6.8 points, 3.7 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game for the Beavers. She led all Division I freshmen and ranked 21st nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.39) last year before the breakup of the Pac-12 led to a mass exodus for Oregon State’s program.

“Think about her story as a starting point guard as a true freshman at Oregon State and led them a game away from the Final Four last year,” said Campbell. “She comes and learns another brand new system in a brand new program and leads her team to the Sweet 16. Our team has kind of taken off as Donovyn has continued to grow and blossom throughout the season. That young lady is a freaking warrior at the same time as the most humble, selfless kid.”

Hunter, who has started 19 of TCU’s 36 games, boosted her averages to 6.0 points, 2.7 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 1.2 steals with Sunday’s showing. She’s averaging 24.7 minutes per game — with that total steadily increasing — and is shooting 45.4% from the field (84-for-185) and 36% (32-for-89) from 3-point range.

Hunter said she knew her opportunities would increase Sunday as Louisville (22-11) worked frantically to keep Van Lith and Conner from scoring.

“All year they’ve seen the pressure,” said Hunter. “Hailey and Maddy are our leading scorers so there’s no question why teams would pressure them the way that they do. Through the season, especially for me, I’ve learned that I have to step up in my role to relieve the pressure off of them, especially when they’re getting trapped on every ball screen.”

“I think tonight was just a testament to the work that we’ve put in as a team and in practice just to make Hailey’s life a lot easier.”

Campbell was not surprised by Hunter stepping up in the moment. This season has been spent with the 2023 Panther graduate playing a versatile role, doing whatever is asked to help spur the Horned Frogs.

“She’s the ultimate winner and incredibly selfless,” said the coach. “She literally doesn’t care what her role is, and she works so hard. She doesn’t care if she takes two shots or 15 shots, she doesn’t care if I told her to guard the center and we need you to front or if I need you to guard the point guard. Donovyn Hunter is the most selfless, elite-level winner that you could ask for.”

Saturday’s game against Notre Dame stands to be an intriguing one, with Hunter and the Beavers ousting the Fighting Irish in last year’s Sweet 16. TCU beat Notre Dame, 76-68, in the Cayman Islands on Nov. 29 as an early indication of what the Horned Frogs would be capable of this season.

“They’re obviously an incredible team — they have a lot of talented players — but we’re very talented as well,” said Van Lith of Saturday’s matchup. “I think it’s going to be a great game, and it’s going to be so good for women’s basketball. At this point in the season, great players show up, so whoever’s the toughest team is gonna win, so that’s going to be our job.”

Reach sports editor Kris Henry at khenry@rv-times.com or 458-488-2035