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The best season in the history of TCU's women's basketball program continued Saturday with a come-from-behind, 72-61 victory in the Sweet 16 over Notre Dame.

After tying the game early in the third quarter, the Horned Frogs saw the Fighting Irish go on a 9-0 run to seemingly take control of the game. TCU's offense seemed a bit out of sorts and the Irish's star backcourt began to push the pace and create the first real separation of the ball game. Trailing by nine with just under six minutes to go in the third quarter, the Horned Frogs faced the most critical moment of their season and put the ball in the hands of their veteran star guard, Hailey Van Lith, to find a response. 

Van Lith took over on offense and served as the catalyst for a 14-4 run to jump back in front by one in the closing seconds of the third quarter. In the fourth, Van Lith continued to knock down big shots as the Horned Frogs steadily wrestled control of the game away from the Irish, dominating the game on both ends in the final 10 minutes. 

The TCU defense, anchored by Sedona Prince and the six blocks she recorded, stifled the Notre Dame offense. The Horned Frogs walled off the rim and frustrated the Irish's star backcourt with their ball pressure, length and physicality. Notre Dame only scored 10 points in the fourth, and while Prince was the chief deterrent, Van Lith turned up her intensity on that end as well with a crucial steal and block of her own late. 

Any time the Irish tried to mount a run, Van Lith had the answer. First with a pivoting 3-pointer after Notre Dame trimmed the deficit to just five, and then had the final dagger on a driving layup with under 90 seconds to play to extend the lead to nine. 

Van Lith's 13 points on 4 of 7 shooting in the fourth quarter were more than Notre Dame scored as a team, and the Irish's backcourt trio combined to go 1 of 13 from the field for just five points in the final frame. For the game, Van Lith piled up 26 points, nine rebounds, four assists, one steal and one block, doing a bit of everything to lead her Horned Frogs to a place they've never been before. 

After the game when asked about her second-half play, Van Lith demurred, noting she was just being more patient in the pick-and-roll game and shifted attention to Prince's effort with 21 points, six rebounds, four assists and six blocks. 

"I just read their ball screen coverage a lot better," Van Lith said. "They were trying to mix it up with different bigs, they had a lot of different personnel. I just tried to take what they gave me. Sedona [Prince] played huge today, man. She dominated in the paint, she did it subtle, she really got the win for us." 

Prince's performance was certainly a huge factor for TCU, as her size gave Notre Dame problems on both ends, but the Irish also seemed happy in the second and early third quarters to let the Horned Frogs try hunting mismatches with Prince in the post. That seemed to get TCU's offense out of rhythm, and it wasn't until they got back into their ball screen game and got Van Lith moving downhill more that they picked their scoring pace back up. 

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For Van Lith, this has been something of a season of redemption. She broke out as a star at Louisville thanks to some huge NCAA Tournament performances, but she faded to the background in her year at LSU and struggled to make the kind of impact in big moments we had come to expect from her -- even as the Tigers made an Elite Eight run of their own. On Saturday in Birmingham, we saw a return of that dogged player who can will her team to a victory, as she authored one of the best NCAA Tournament performances of her career. 

After the game, TCU coach Mark Campbell had incredibly high praise for Van Lith, remarking on her incredible competitive spirit and explaining why she has more than earned the title of "Miss March." 

"The 'Miss March' [nickname] is deserved and earned," Campbell said. "In this era of the portal and the modern day college athlete, and there's a lot of bad stories of the portal, but Hailey Van Lith leading three schools five times to the Elite Eight? [salutes] Yes, she gets that title and she can own it. ...

"The competitive spirit she has to be our playmaker and generate the offensive opportunities we have and then on the other end always be willing to square up on the other team's best guard. I mean, she's elite, man. The kid's competitive spirit, DNA and the heart that's inside her chest is unmatched."

Miss March's timing couldn't have been better for the Horned Frogs, who have reached new heights as a program with Van Lith and Prince, and will now head to the Elite Eight for the first time, where they'll face the winner of Texas and Tennessee.