TCU upends Texas in Austin to eclipse win total from last season

In a turnaround season marked by milestone performances, TCU added several more Wednesday night under new men’s basketball coach Jamie Dixon.

The Horned Frogs knocked off Texas 64-61 in the Erwin Center to record the team’s first road victory against a Big 12 opponent in almost two years. By doing so, TCU (13-3, 2-2 Big 12) assured it will win more games this season that it did a year ago in the final 12-win season under former coach Trent Johnson.

Forward Vladimir Brodzianksy led the Frogs with a game-high 19 points and point guard Jaylen Fisher added 16, including a pair of pressure-packed free throws with 17.8 seconds remaining to extend a one-point margin to 64-61.

The triumph marked TCU’s first victory in Austin since 1987, when both schools competed in the Southwest Conference and Dixon was a player who contributed 18 points and nine assists during the Frogs’ 70-54 triumph.

Dixon reminded players before the game that TCU had not won in Austin since that contest, going 0-14 in the interim at the Erwin Center. The Frogs responded in a big way, erasing a 53-46 deficit over the final 8:48 and closing with a 6-2 surge over the final 1:30.

With the triumph, TCU won its first road game against a Big 12 opponent since a 62-42 victory at Texas Tech on Jan. 17, 2015. The triumph upped TCU’s road record to 2-36 in five seasons as a Big 12 member.

“Obviously, a great win for us. Before the game, I let our guys know that we hadn’t won here in 30 years. So we needed to put an end to that,” Dixon said. “Road wins have been few and far between for us in the Big 12. That’s been a big emphasis for us.”

The triumph touched off a significant celebration among a collection of TCU fans seated behind the Horned Frogs’ bench that included several school administrators.

“Texas is Texas, no question about it,” Dixon said. “It’s progress.”

Combined with the Horned Frogs’ football team winning its game in Austin in November, Wednesday’s triumph marked the first time for TCU to claim road victories over the Longhorns in both sports in the same school year since 1959-60. To put that in perspective, neither Dixon nor TCU football coach Gary Patterson was alive in 1959.

Brodziansky, who also contributed six rebounds and three blocks, gave the Frogs their first lead since the 16:02 mark when he buried a short jumper as part of a 12-0 run with 6:14 remaining.

But the contest went back and forth until Brodziansky’s layup with 50 seconds remaining gave TCU the lead for good at 62-61. A pair of defensive stops put Fisher in position for his fateful free throws that put away the Longhorns (7-9, 1-3).

“I was pretty confident,” Fisher said. “Just walking to the line, I felt like it was an opportunity to bring it home.”

He did, touching off a road celebration among TCU players unlike any other in the school’s Big 12 era.

“It was awesome,” said Brodziansky, who joined the program last year as a junior-college transfer in a season when TCU failed to win a Big 12 road game. “Every Big 12 win is great for us and big. But it’s something special since we haven’t won here in 30 years.”

This story was originally published January 11, 2017 at 9:06 PM with the headline "TCU upends Texas in Austin to eclipse win total from last season."