TCU scores fewest points of season as K-State spoils Senior Night, and possibly more
Kansas State spoiled Senior Night. And possibly TCU’s standing as an NCAA tournament team.
K-State, much like Texas Tech on Saturday, is a team that showed signs its starting to peak at the right time for a March run. TCU flashed resiliency in battling back from a big deficit, but simply dug itself too big of a hole once again.
Kansas State 64, TCU 52.
The 52 points were a season low. So much for sending seniors Alex Robinson and JD Miller off on the right note in their final Big 12 game on Monday night at Schollmaier Arena.
TCU (18-12, 6-11 Big 12) has now lost six of its last seven, and is firmly on the bubble. But the Frogs still have a chance, although they shouldn’t put all their hopes on the bubble being “soft” this year with no teams in similar situations making a compelling case.
“Everybody else seems to lose, I don’t know, let’s go find out what happens if we go win Saturday, we’ve got to play better to do that,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “I believe we can be better. I believe we can get better defensively.”
TCU has a chance to get a much-needed victory at Texas on Saturday, and possibly another in the Big 12 tournament. That would put the Frogs at the 20-win mark with a season sweep of Iowa State and Texas, and with wins over teams such as Baylor and Florida.
That’d probably be enough to punch their ticket.
“There’s no quit in us, not for those seniors too,” freshman guard R.J. Nembhard said. “We’ve got to keep our heads up, get better every day. At this point, we’ve just got to win.”
TCU at least showed in spurts it has the ability to hang with a team such as No. 18 Kansas State (23-7, 13-4 Big 12).
The Wildcats opened the second half by scoring the first 10 points as part of a 15-3 run to take a commanding 51-30 lead. But the Frogs answered with their own 10-0 run, including eight points by Nembhard, to pull within 51-40 with 12:46 left.
TCU got within single digits, 55-46, with less than eight minutes left on a jumper by Kendric Davis and cut the deficit to seven a couple times.
The Frogs had opportunities to make it closer than that, too, but Robinson missed the front-end of a one-and-one free throw situation. Then, with 4:52 left, Nembhard fouled K-State’s Kamau Stokes on a 3-point attempt and Stokes made all three free throws to regain a 60-50 lead.
“They turned it up a notch,” K-State guard Barry Brown said. “We got on our heels a little bit. We just had to weather the storm.”
TCU didn’t threaten after that. Much like Saturday, the Frogs simply dug themselves too big of a hole.
TCU freshman center Kevin Samuel finished with a career-high 17 points, and Nembhard had 12 points.
Kouat Noi, the Frogs’ leading scorer, picked up his second foul with 13:01 left in the first half and played just eight minutes in the opening half. Noi finished the night scoreless for the first time this season, going 0-for-4 from the field.
Miller had just two points on 1-for-6 shooting.
K-State coach Bruce Weber described it as “a great defensive effort.”
“We knew they were desperate and they weren’t going to quit,” Weber said. “You knew they were going to keep coming at us.”
Stokes said K-State’s game plan simply called for forcing Noi to take contested shots.
“He’s a real good shooter,” Stokes said. “You’ve got to be in his space so he doesn’t get open looks.”
K-State’s leading scorer was Brown, who had 16 points.
TCU and K-State were tied at 23-23 with less than five minutes left in the first half. But the Wildcats closed on a 13-4 run.
Stokes knocked down two 3-pointers during the finishing stretch. The Wildcats won the rebounding battle in the opening half, 18-12, and held the Frogs to just 2-for-9 from 3-point range.
For Robinson and Miller, it’s a bittersweet home ending for their careers. Each will exit as 1,000-point scorers. Robinson is the program’s all-time leader in assists, and Miller is on pace for the most games played in school history.
This story was originally published March 4, 2019 at 10:06 PM.
