TCU’s late rally runs out of steam as it falls to K-State in Big 12 tournament
The TCU men’s basketball team had a short stay at the Big 12 tournament.
The No. 7-seeded Horned Frogs rallied back from an early deficit, but ultimately fell short in a 53-49 loss to No. 10-seed Kansas State in the opening round on Wednesday night at the Sprint Center.
TCU’s season is likely over at 16-16. It’s still in the mix for an NIT bid, although that is far from guaranteed with a NET ranking of 92.
If it’s the end, this will be the fewest wins Jamie Dixon has had in his career with the previous low being a 19-15 season at Pitt in 2014-15.
“I’m disappointed in the loss,” Dixon said. “There is no question about it, but we fought and we competed. We got out-rebounded by nine and that can’t happen. We’ve come up short on a number of things all year long and that was just another one of them today.”
K-State won the rebounding battle 36-27, and outscored TCU in bench points, 15-0. The Wildcats also got to the free throw line twice as many times as the Frogs.
In the end, TCU simply ran out of steam. This is a team that was coming off a heart-breaking loss to Oklahoma in the regular-season finale, blowing a 20-point lead.
“We battled. We fought,” Dixon said. “It was a unique game in that I would say we probably had better shots down the stretch than they had. They made ‘em, we didn’t. That’s not usually how it works, but that’s kind of how this year has gone for us.”
The Frogs couldn’t have gotten off to a slower start. They endured scoring droughts of four minutes to start the game and another 7:28 drought later in the first half.
They missed their first seven 3-point attempts and turned it over 11 times in the opening half. K-State led by as many as 17 points.
But the Frogs showed resiliency by pulling to within 10 points by halftime. They then went on a 15-2 run in the second half, tying the game at 35-35 on a 3-pointer by PJ Fuller with 11:37 left. Desmond Bane and RJ Nembhard also had 3-pointers in that stretch.
TCU eventually took the lead during an 8-0 run, taking its first lead of the game 46-45 on a layup by Nembhard with 4:47 left. TCU went on to build a 49-45 lead on a layup by Kevin Samuel with 3:36 left.
But the Frogs didn’t score after that. K-State rallied back, breaking a 49-49 game on a layup by Makol Mawien with 1:18 left. That held up as the game-winning basket.
TCU had a chance at the end, but Nembhard missed a 3-pointer with 4 seconds left.
“I’ve been in that situation numerous times,” Nembhard said. “Desmond had a great attack to the rim, found PJ, threw it to me, just didn’t knock the shot down.”
Said Dixon: “Des made the right pass and the right play. That’s all you can do is get the best shot you can possibly get and that’s a pretty good shot.”
K-State’s Mike McGuirl sealed the game with two free throws with 1.2 seconds left.
Nembhard finished with a game-high 19 points, while Bane had 16 points and nine rebounds.
For Bane, if it’s the end, it’s a disappointing finish to a stellar career.
“I’m proud of the way we fought back in the second half,” Bane said. “I enjoyed every bit of playing with these guys all year long.”
K-State advanced to face No. 2 Baylor on Thursday night.
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 10:55 PM.
