TCU ‘six points from being undefeated’ after double OT miss

They missed the shot, but the TCU Horned Frogs got exactly what they wanted from their last play against Texas.

That at least left them feeling a little better the next day.

“That was a great play. It just didn’t go in,” guard Alex Robinson said of Jaylen Fisher’s drive and layup attempt at the last second on Wednesday night at Texas. “It worked exactly how it usually does in practice. Jaylen makes that shot 99 percent of the time, and it just didn’t fall.”

The ball went off the rim and left TCU with a 99-98 loss in two overtimes.

But unlike a similar situation against Oklahoma two weeks earlier, when Kenrich Williams’ rushed 3-pointer was off the mark, the Frogs executed the final play like they practiced.

“I’m encouraged by how we executed on the play,” coach Jamie Dixon said Thursday before practice at TCU. “We had to go to our second option, and we did. You want execution, and you want the right decision, and we made the right decisions. And we got a layup. In my mind, it was a positive. We expressed it that way.”

Fisher finished with 13 points and 5-for-10 shooting. He had six assists and no turnovers in 27 minutes.

“There was plenty of time,” Dixon said. “You could get to the basket. It was really good execution. We didn’t get the finish. But that’s what basketball is. You want to execute right, and the numbers will add up.”

TCU made 15 of 30 shots in the second half and seven of 15 in the overtimes, committing only two turnovers after halftime. In the first half, the Frogs had nine turnovers in trailing by as much as 13.

“I liked our energy, liked how we fought back, like the team, how we did it — took care of the ball, passed the ball,” Dixon said. “But at the end of the day, we dug ourselves another hole, and we’re really trying to address the slow starts. With that said, we’ve come back. We’ve gotten ahead in every situation. But we want to have 40 good minutes of basketball. We haven’t done that.”

TCU has lost three of four since a 12-game winning streak to open the season. The Frogs have split two overtimes on the road and lost two at home by a combined five points.

“We’re six points from being undefeated,” Robinson said. “We just need to improve down the stretch, which I think we will. We’re going to learn from our mistakes.”

But four games into the 18-game league schedule, the Frogs are already three games behind conference leader West Virginia. And now, on Saturday in Norman, the Frogs face their second meeting against Oklahoma, a 90-89 winner on Dec. 30 in Fort Worth.

“We can keep saying we’re a good team, but our league is built for good teams to get losses,” Dixon said. “You’re going to run into a really tough stretch, really 18 games of good basketball. We’ve hit it early. We’re hurting because of it. We know what the difference is — a layup, a blockout, a rebound. It’s the difference between being 4-0 and 0-4.”

This story was originally published January 11, 2018 at 6:19 PM with the headline "TCU ‘six points from being undefeated’ after double OT miss."