The Austin Reaves show again does in TCU as Oklahoma wins Big 12 basketball opener
Austin Reaves would probably prefer to play more games at Schollmaier Arena. The Oklahoma senior guard has made himself at home the past two trips.
TCU had no answer for Reaves as he carried Oklahoma to an 82-78 victory to open Big 12 play on Sunday afternoon.
Reaves finished with 32 points — half of them coming on 16 of 18 free throws — along with nine assists and six rebounds. In last season’s regular-season finale at TCU, he dropped a career-best 41 points to help OU rally back from a 20-point deficit and spoil the Frogs’ Senior Day.
“We’ve got to do something different to Reaves,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “We put him at the line 18 times. We’ve got to be smarter, tougher, have a better scheme, be better coached.”
TCU (4-1, 0-1 Big 12) didn’t have a 20-point of collapse on Sunday like it did last season. Instead, it became a back-and-forth affair in the second half.
TCU led 63-59 following a layup by center Kevin Samuel with 8:16 remaining, but Oklahoma went on a 13-2 run to take a 72-65 lead with 4:38 left. Reaves scored 10 points in that stretch for the Sooners, including five free throws.
Asked about Reaves’ abililty to get to the line, TCU guard Mike Miles said: “I don’t think it was anything he did. It was what we didn’t do. We weren’t playing the right way. He drove, drew the foul like he’s supposed to do.”
Oklahoma didn’t surrender the lead after that, although TCU pulled to within one possession a couple of times. Miles hit a 3-pointer with 1:51 left to pull TCU to within 74-72, but OU re-established a two-possession lead with a couple free throws by Reaves.
The Frogs then had it within 79-77 on a 3-pointer by Francisco Farabello with 43 seconds left but the Sooners answered again. Reaves missed a deep 3-pointer with 15 seconds left but OU’s Alondes Williams got the offensive rebound.
Williams quickly fed it inside to forward Brady Manek, who made the layup to essentially seal the game with an 81-77 lead with 8 seconds left. Reaves scored OU’s final point by making one of two free throws with 2.3 seconds left.
Dixon described Williams getting the offensive rebound for OU as “a killer ... we fought back and then don’t come up with the play.”
TCU was led by Miles’ 21 points. RJ Nembhard finished with 18 points, while PJ Fuller had 15. Samuel had a game-high 11 rebounds.
“Very disappointing loss,” Miles said. “We all said we played good on offense, but on defense we didn’t get it done. We didn’t want to give Reaves 18 free throws but we did.
“It’s definitely a game we can build on. All the things we didn’t do right we can fix. We knew we could win, just didn’t make the plays we needed to.”
TCU returns to action against Providence on Wednesday in a Big 12/Big East Battle matchup. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. at Schollmaier Arena.
O’Bannon sidelined
TCU was without one of its highly touted newcomers on Sunday as redshirt junior Chuck O’Bannon injured his left ankle in practice. He is day-to-day.
Dixon said he didn’t know if O’Bannon would be ready for the Providence game, saying O’Bannon turned his ankle “pretty good.”
“We’ll probably know more in 24 hours,” Dixon said.
O’Bannon, a five-star recruit out of high school who started his college career at Southern Cal, averaged 6.3 points and 5.8 rebounds in TCU’s first four nonconference games. He started every game.
O’Bannon has battled injuries throughout his career. He played in just 18 games over three seasons at USC.
This story was originally published December 6, 2020 at 5:51 PM.
