TCU basketball survives scare, pulls away late to knock off Nicholls State
Early-season upsets are common in college basketball every season. Kansas City stunned Missouri on Monday night. Oakland knocked off Oklahoma State last week.
TCU found itself in a precarious situation against Nicholls State much of Thursday night. The Colonels looked like a team poised to pull off an upset, leading by 13 points with 17 minutes left.
But then TCU turned it on. The Frogs went on a 13-0 run to tie the game and eventually pulled away for a 63-50 victory at Schollmaier Arena.
“This early in the season you don’t want to lose games. Obviously we almost came close,” said TCU sophomore guard Mike Miles, who finished with a game-high 16 points.
“They were a good team. They played hard. You have to give credit to them. They came out ready to play more than us, they wanted it more, but we got the win.”
TCU improved to 3-0 on the season despite losing the rebounding battle and turning it over 15 times. The Frogs finished the night by making 38% of their shots from the field, and 21% from deep (4 of 19).
Nicholls (3-2) struggled even more offensively, shooting 32% from the field and turning it over 19 times. But the Colonels were the better team early on.
Nicholls went on a 16-2 run in the first half to build an 18-12 lead. TCU endured a five-plus minute scoring drought that didn’t end until Chuck O’Bannon Jr. knocked down a 3-pointer with five minutes left in the opening half.
Nicholls led 30-24 going into the locker rooms. Nicholls extended its lead to 38-25 early in the second half before TCU finally found its offensive stride.
“We weren’t very good offensively to start,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “I wouldn’t say start to finish, but we finished the last 15 minutes much better offensively. We haven’t been as good as I thought we’d be. We have work to do, but we got it done down the stretch and our defense kind of took over.”
The Frogs battled back from the 38-25 deficit with their own 13-0 run, tying the game on a 3-pointer by JaKobe Coles with 13 minutes left. They eventually took a 42-41 lead on a layup by Miles with 9:33 left and stayed in front the rest of the way.
Asked about his game-tying 3-pointer, Coles said: “In practice, they always tell me if I’m open, shoot it. I worked real hard this summer when I had a knee injury and got a lot of shots up. I continue to get my jumper a lot better.
“I just try to be open for Mike and anybody who is driving, just try to give space to be open and knock down 3s or knock down layups or anything to help my team. I have confidence and the coaches pour a lot of confidence in me to do that, so I feel confident in my shot.”
Miles scored 13 of his game-high 16 points in the final 17 minutes. TCU also got key baskets from Micah Peavy, who had a steal and fast-break dunk to make it a 47-41 game with seven minutes left, and Francisco Farabello, who knocked down a 3-pointer with 2:39 left to seal the game by making it 57-47.
For TCU, as poorly as some of the offensive numbers look on the box score, battling back from a 13-point deficit is a promising sign early on this season.
“I think we showed a lot of maturity with that,” Peavy said. “I don’t think we put our heads down at all. We just came together. We said we need to lock in and cut down on turnovers and we got it done.”
TCU (3-0) goes on the road for the first time next week as it faces Santa Clara on Monday night in the SoCal Challenge in San Juan Capistrano, California.
This story was originally published November 18, 2021 at 9:05 PM.
