Senior Day meltdown: Inside TCU’s 20-point collapse against Oklahoma
Oklahoma spoiled TCU’s Senior Day on Saturday afternoon.
What had the makings of a memorable sendoff for senior Desmond Bane ended in a stunning defeat.
The Sooners rallied from a 20-point deficit for a 78-76 victory at Schollmaier Arena.
OU junior guard Austin Reaves became the villain in Fort Worth, finishing with a career-high 41 points including the game-winning basket with 0.5 seconds left.
“It’s not fun of course,” said Bane, who finished with a team-high 24 points. “But we’ve still got a lot of basketball to play. We can finish this season on a strong note. That’s really what’s most important to me.”
The victory made Oklahoma (19-12, 9-9 Big 12) the No. 3 seed in next week’s Big 12 tournament. The Sooners will face West Virginia on Thursday night at Kansas City’s Sprint Center.
TCU (16-15, 7-11 Big 12) will be the No. 7 seed and face No. 10 seed Kansas State on Wednesday. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m.
If the Horned Frogs want to reach the NCAA Tournament, they will have to make history by running the table in KC and earning the league’s automatic bid. Since the inaugural conference tournament in 1997, no team has won the championship by winning four games in four days.
TCU faces a K-State team it swept in the regular season, the only team it swept. But the Wildcats closed the regular-season strong with a 79-63 victory over Iowa State on Saturday.
For TCU, Saturday was a doubly deflating loss. Not on did it happen on Senior Day, but the Frogs had a chance to earn a bye in the conference tournament with a victory.
“Certainly a heart-breaking loss for us,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “We tried everything different in the second half defensively, lining up different adjustments. They just made the plays, made the shots.
“I’m really disappointed for our seniors, disappointed for our team, disappointed for our fans. I thought we played tremendous in the first half. We told them what we needed to do in the second half — no 3s and take care of the basketball and get it done on the glass. We didn’t do any of those things.”
OU went 8 for 15 from 3-point range in the second half after going just 1 for 8 in the first half. It also was plus-eight in the rebounding battle and forced eight TCU turnovers in the second half.
TCU’s meltdown began when OU went on a 10-0 run in the second half, pulling to within 59-52 with 7 minutes, 14 seconds left on a 3-pointer by Kristian Doolittle.
The Sooners were within 71-67 with 1:58 left, closing the gap on a 3-pointer by Brady Manek. Those were the first points of the game by Manek, who had a career-high 31 points in the first meeting.
OU then got within 73-71 with 1:30 left on the next possession when Reaves had a four-point play (making a 3-pointer and free throw after being fouled by TCU’s Jaire Grayer).
TCU had a chance to regain a two-possession lead, but freshman Francisco Farabello made just 1 of 2 free throws. OU answered with two free throws by Reaves to pull within 74-73.
Bane gave TCU a 76-73 lead on a jumper in the lane, but OU tied it at 76-76 on another 3-pointer by Manek with 55 seconds left.
TCU’s RJ Nembhard missed a layup on the ensuing possession, giving OU the ball with a chance to win it at the buzzer.
And that’s what it did when Reaves made a game-deciding basket on a fadeaway over Nembhard with 0.5 seconds left.
“Coach (Lon Kruger) drew up the play for me, showing that he had the confidence in me,” Reaves said. “For him to have the confidence in me as well as the players, that just shows a lot to me, so I just had the confidence to make the shot.”
Reaves made a few gestures while running to the other end of the floor after making the game-winning shot, yelling “it’s over” toward the TV cameras.
Reaves’ previous career high was 24 points, but he wasn’t overall surprised by his big day. It was the most points scored by a Big 12 player this season.
“No,” Reaves said. “I mean, I’ve been playing basketball for a long time, and all the hard work I put into it paid off tonight.”
TCU had a final chance, but Grayer’s half-court heave clanked off the basket at the buzzer. Grayer had a season-high 18 points.
Dixon said Reaves deserves credit, but was disappointed with how many times TCU put him at the free-throw line in the second half. Reaves scored 12 of his 25 points in the second half by going 12 for 13 from the foul line.
“You can’t put a team at the foul line 15 times in the second half when you’re up the entire game,” Dixon said. “I don’t know if that’s possible, but we did it. They got to the foul line without us trying to foul them. That’s hard to do.”
All of it happened after TCU jumped out to a big lead in the first half.
Bane played a starring role, scoring 19 points in the first half. He got it started by knocking down a 3-pointer at the 17:33 mark of the first half, which made him the program’s 3-point king with 244.
Bane entered tied for the top spot with Corey Santee, who is now the program’s player development coordinator.
The Frogs pulled away with a 9-0 run later in the first half, building a 41-21 lead with 3:09 left. That three-minute stretch featured two dunks by TCU big man Kevin Samuel and two layups by Bane.
TCU led 44-26 at the break, but that lead didn’t stand.
TCU ended up making history for the wrong reason, blowing the biggest lead of the Dixon era. The previous high was 15 points, which happened earlier this season in a loss to Clemson in Las Vegas.
“We gave them life in the second half,” Bane said. “They’re a good team, but we had them down and out and gave them life. They fought their way back.
“We didn’t have a good second half today, but we’ve been playing well. We can take that to Kansas City and make some noise.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2020 at 7:27 PM.
