FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Olivia Miles had assists on TCU’s first four baskets while putting the Horned Frogs ahead to stay, and a double-double by halftime even while scoring only four points.
The playmaking point guard was well in range of another triple-double in the women’s NCAA Tournament.
“I would be happy with zero points and 20 assists, but once I heard that I had 10 rebounds early on, I was like OK, so I have to go get it now,” Miles said.
And Miles did, becoming only the third player with multiple triple-doubles in women’s NCAA Tournament games by scoring 12 points along with a career-high 16 rebounds and a single-game school record 14 assists in the Horned Frogs’ 86-40 win over UC San Diego in a first-round game on Friday.
It was Miles’ 12th career triple-double, and her sixth in what will be the 5-foot-10 graduate transfer’s only season with the Horned Frogs to extend the Big 12 single season and career mark. She had four in a five-game stretch earlier this season.
“This is probably the best. I mean, it’s March,” coach Mark Campbell said when asked to put Miles’ game in perspective. “To break our all-time single game assist record while having a triple-double during March Madness, holy cow. … Again, it’s a magnitude of the game, the stage and just everything. Olivia, her ability, you saw within the first four minutes of the game the pep, the pop she played with. I mean she was in attack mode. When Olivia’s like that, our team feeds off it and we’re at a whole different level.”
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 women’s 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.
The last women’s NCAA Tournament triple-double was Caitlin Cark for Iowa in a reginal final win over Louisville on March 26, 2023, when she had 41 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists. That was the only one since the previous one by Miles.
Ionescu with 26 and Clark with 17 are the only players with more career triple-doubles than Miles.
After making a 3-pointer with 4:50 left to push her over 10 points, Miles immediately came out of the game. The 14 assists matched her career high, done three times while with Notre Dame.
“I think sometimes the game is a little bit effortless for her and I think that sometimes it’s not appreciated of not just the combination of size and skill and instincts that she possesses,” said UC San Diego coach Heidi VanDerveer, whose older sister, Hall of Famer and former Stanford coach Tara, was also in attendance. “But all those things combined in one player is pretty special really and I thought that her skill set was really on full display tonight. And you’ve seen it on film.”
Miles had 10 rebounds and 10 assists when TCU led 48-25 at halftime. The assists on TCU’s first four baskets, two of them zipped passes to Marta Suarez for 3-pointers, pushed TCU ahead 11-2 just over 2 minutes into the game.
“I was finding people early and I literally told Mark, if I go out there and I have zero points and 20 assists, I would be just as happy,” Miles said. “That’s just what I love to do and that’s what brings me the most joy playing basketball.”
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
