Sedona Prince pens down emotional message for Mark Campbell after his heartwarming moment with her & Hailey Van Lith
TCU center Sedona Prince could not lead the No. 2 Horned Frogs past the No. 1 Texas Longhorns in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament on Tuesday, losing 58-47. Prince tallied four points, nine rebounds and one assist in the game that ended her college basketball career as she ran out of eligibility.
Under coach Mark Campbell, the Horned Frogs had a historic season, winning the Big 12 Tournament championship and reaching the Elite Eight of the Big Dance behind the performances of Prince and Hailey Van Lith.
On Wednesday, the ever-supportive Prince reposted a picture on her Instagram stories of TCU coach Mark Campbell hugging her and Van Lith with a heartfelt message.
"The glory that comes from playing for a coach that GENUINELY loves all of his players and makes God the reason for it all," Prince wrote.
During his postgame news conference after the game against the Longhorns, Mark Campbell showed his support for Prince despite her struggles against her former team.
"I haven't got to decompress with Sedona and talk through that, but I'm sure there were a lot of emotions that were going through her head before the game and probably during," Campbell said via ESPN.com.
"I know more than anything she wanted to win not because we were playing Texas but she wanted to win because she doesn't want the journey to end with this group," he added.
Sedona Prince opened up about struggles against Texas
Sedona Prince committed to the Texas Longhorns in 2018 but was injured as a freshman, necessitating several surgeries that led to life-threatening infections. Prince left Texas under a cloud after accusing the medical team of mismanaging her rehabilitation.
During the postgame press conference after the Elite Eight loss to her former team, she revealed why she struggled in the game, tallying only four points and fouling out with 6:32 left.
"I was in my head a lot," Prince said. "To be honest, I think today was a very full-circle moment for me in a way that I wasn't expecting. Just looking at the people that did so much damage to me at a young age was a lot and it was hard, and I thought that we had to win to prove it to them that they couldn't beat me.
"But being a part of this program and being here and succeeding and coming back and being able to play and after being told I would never walk again, and being on this team with these people, building this sisterhood, it doesn't matter. I won. We won, and so yeah. I think I was in my head a lot," she added.
Sedona Prince was dominant in her final year of eligibility, averaging 17.2 ppg on 58.3% shooting from the floor and 20% shooting from beyond the arc. She also registered 9.4 rpg and 2.4 apg for the TCU Horned Frogs.
She will now look ahead as she is set to join the WNBA via the draft.