Auburn’s freshman-fueled, second-half run leaves TCU in the dust

Rather than a team with NCAA Tournament ambitions, TCU was beaten badly in just about every measurable on Saturday at Schollmaier Arena as its worst stretch of the season was not only extended but reached crisis level in an “eye-opening” loss that was far worse than the final outcome.

The Frogs sustained a fourth consecutive defeat, 88-80 to Auburn, which used a 27-3 second-half run to turn a one-point deficit into a big lead and TCU’s first loss in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.

TCU couldn’t guard the dribble effectively – allowing Auburn penetration and easy shots – was slow to loose balls, and turned the ball over 18 times, many leading to easy transition points for the Tigers.

“We’re on a slide here and we got to go figure it out,” said TCU coach Jamie Dixon, who was also without Kenrich Williams for almost the entire game because of foul trouble. “We were clearly outplayed. Disappointed … there is no other way to put it. I was surprised we played that bad defensively.

“The defense was by far the worst it’s been all year, and we got what we deserved.”

Freshman Austin Wiley scored a career-high 25 points, including 21 in the second half, all at close range and many in transition as he beat TCU’s bigs up and down the floor. Mustapha Heron, another freshman and his team’s leading scorer on the season, had 17 for the Tigers (14-7).

Alex Robinson had a team-high 20 for TCU (14-7). Vlad Brodziansky and JD Miller had 19 and 17 points.

The loss was TCU’s first in the annual SEC/Big 12 Challenge after victories over Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and last year against Tennessee.

Auburn opened the game by hitting 10 of its first 14 shots in grabbing its largest lead of the half – eight – but the Tigers cooled off the last 10 minutes. The Tigers hit nine of their last 21 shots, and the Frogs took advantage, scraping back to within two at halftime.

The game featured 11 lead changes, and the last was decisive.

Up 57-56 at the 14:34 mark of the second half, TCU hit only one field goal in the next 8 1/2 minutes.

Wiley had 10 of the Tigers’ points during its 27-3 razing of the Frogs, including three dunks and a tip-in. TCU did little to challenge Auburn, which easily got to the basket time and again.

In addition to Wiley, Auburn’s other field goals during the run were four layups and a dunk from Anfernee McLemore.

Wiley’s third dunk aptly was the punctuation, providing the Tigers their biggest margin at 80-59.

TCU was without Williams, the Big 12’s leading rebounder and a crucial piece. The junior played only 12 minutes, including four in the second half, as he eventually fouled out. Williams returned with three fouls at the 12:59 mark and promptly picked up his fourth foul.

TCU didn’t shoot the ball well in the second half, only converting 41 percent of its shots. The Frogs hit five of 20 3-point attempts and were bad from the free-throw line, going 9 for 20. Conversely, Auburn hit 53 percent of its field-goal attempts.

“We’ve got to play through this,” said JD Williams. “It was an eye-opener. Once they got on that run we just tried to come together and figure out what we have to do to come back.”

This game now past, the Frogs move on to the bigger issue of figuring out how to escape the skid.

A road game with Kansas State on Wednesday awaits.

“We’re in a new position,” Dixon said. “Everybody has felt good about what we were doing, but we’re in a new spot here. We just didn’t play well at all.

“We’ve got to look at ourselves and figure out what we want to do from this point on.”

Big 12 men’s standings

This story was originally published January 28, 2017 at 10:49 PM with the headline "Auburn’s freshman-fueled, second-half run leaves TCU in the dust."