TCU’s late collapse allows Clemson a chance to steal win in overtime
The TCU men’s basketball team took a 15-point lead on R.J. Nembhard’s layup with less than eight minutes remaining Sunday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and the night seemed firmly in the Horned Frogs’ control.
But a perfect storm of turnovers, cold shooting and a suddenly sharp-shooting opponent all coalesced into a frantic finish and ultimately a head-scratching night for TCU.
The Clemson Tigers scored the final 15 points of regulation to force overtime and eventually stun TCU 62-60 at the MGM Resorts Main Event tournament.
The Horned Frogs (4-1) play Wyoming at 8 p.m. Tuesday to close their two-game stint. The Cowboys lost to Colorado on Sunday. Colorado and Clemson play at 10:30 p.m. TCU’s game airs on ESPN3.
TCU, despite going 0 for 6 from the field and committing six turnovers during Clemson’s surge in regulation, had a chance to nip it in the bud in the final seconds. Desmond Bane, who is an 81% career free-throw shooter and was 5 for 5 from the line through the Frogs’ first four games, missed twice after drawing the foul on a drive to the basket with four seconds left in regulation with the game tied at 52-52.
The Tigers had a prime chance to win it at the buzzer when Aamir Simms drove the paint for a layup but TCU’s Kevin Samuel close quickly and made a game-saving block to force the overtime.
“I just missed them,” said Bane, who finished with 17 points on 6 of 16 shooting, six assists and three steals. “It is what it is. I wish I could have hit them, of course, but we never should have been in that position, but that’s on me.”
In overtime, Edric Dennis gave TCU a four-point lead with 3-pointer with 2:40 remaining but the Tigers scored the final six points to claim the win.
With Clemson holding a one-point lead with five seconds remaining, Dennis had a decent look just outside the paint but missed. Jaire Grayer grabbed the rebound but his put back was off too.
“It was tough. I’ve got to make the play,” said Dennis, who led the Frogs with a season-high 18 points. “I’ve got to make the play.”
The game started oddly with both teams struggling to score. It was 8-8 12 minutes into the game. TCU led 25-23 at the half with Bane and Dennis each scoring nine points in the half.
TCU started the second half much better and after a 7-0 run built an 11-point lead six minutes into the half. Bane led the charge, hitting a 3 as the shot clock expired to push the lead to 12 with just over 10 minutes to go and then hit a layup to make it 50-37 with 8:30 remaining. But TCU only scored two more points the rest of regulation.
“We got out of the flow of the game,” Bane said. “I felt like we lost our rhythm and kind of slowed down, maybe tried to kill some clock and had some turnovers late that were bad.”
TCU’s struggles during the final eight minutes of regulation contained a little bit of everything you’d expect in such a collapse.
“You can go down the list. It’s not one thing and you can’t make a story out of it,” Dixon said. “It’s just a one-sentence deal: Didn’t rebound, second shots, gave up 3s, traveled on a play, missed two free throws.”
Still, that’s one heck of a sentence.
“They add up. And we did it. It’s tough to do it, but we kind of did one of each,” he said. “We took all the things that we say not to do and we did them, one of each.”
This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 5:19 AM.
