TCU basketball wins a thriller, rallying past No. 9 Texas Tech in the final minutes
TCU basketball got the party started early Saturday night.
The Horned Frogs were dancing around with fans at center court as officials reviewed a potential game-tying 3-pointer by Texas Tech’s Bryson Williams at the buzzer.
Why officials needed an extended review to ensure that a player couldn’t, in fact, catch a pass, turn around, square up and shoot it in 0.5 seconds will remain a mystery. What isn’t a mystery any longer is whether TCU is NCAA Tournament worthy.
The Horned Frogs aren’t a lock for the Big Dance, but they proved they’re worthy by knocking off the ninth-ranked Red Raiders 69-66 at Schollmaier Arena. Just ask Tech coach Mark Adams.
“If they ask me, they’d get my vote. TCU is really good,” Adams said. “This Big 12, as we all know, is a nightmare. It keeps me up late at night. Every game is tough.”
Tech (22-7, 11-5) had its four-game winning streak snapped in losing its fifth conference road game, although the Tech faithful filled up a good portion of Schollmaier on Saturday.
TCU (18-9, 7-8 Big 12), meanwhile, earned its fifth “Quad 1” victory as far as the NCAA’s NET rankings are concerned, and is in position for its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2018 with three regular-season games left. The Frogs are one of 27 teams with at least five “Quad 1” wins and cracked the top-50 in the NET rankings on Sunday, moving up to No. 49.
“I believe this team is a tournament team,” TCU junior forward Emanuel Miller said. “I have complete trust in my teammates. I think we have proven enough that we are one of the best teams in the country. The rankings don’t show that, but we know collectively as a group that we can compete with anyone.”
Saturday showcased that. TCU could’ve folded multiple times throughout the game.
Tech opened red-hot from the field, shooting 63% in the opening half and building a 41-33 lead by halftime. And Tech seemingly answered every TCU run early in the second half.
But TCU kept chipping away and finally broke through for the lead when guard Francisco Farabello buried a 3-pointer from the right corner with just under four minutes left. That gave the Frogs a 61-60 lead, capping a 7-0 run.
“He’s been shooting great,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said of Farabello. “I thought he passed up a couple earlier and told him to shoot it. That was huge.”
Farabello’s 3 started a flurry of lead changes late. Tech and TCU went blow for blow on the next six possessions. The Frogs grabbed a 67-66 lead with just over one minute left when Mike Miles dumped it off to Xavier Cork down low for an easy dunk.
Tech turned it over on a shot-clock violation on the next possession, which paved the way for a TCU victory. The Frogs went just 2 of 6 from the free-throw line in the final 24 seconds, but the Red Raiders missed a couple of 3-pointers in the final seconds.
Williams finally made one, but it came after the buzzer. The Frogs knew the review would end favorably as they joined the court-storming celebration.
“That’s the first time I’ve ever experienced something like that. It meant a lot,” said Miles, who had a game-high 26 points. “They had a lot of fans here, but we had a lot of fans here too. They just supported us, and we really appreciated it. We saw, before the game was even over, they were all coming up to the refs, so we all said, ‘They’re going to storm the court, so we have to win,’ and we won.”
It became a season-defining win for the Frogs. The Red Raiders scored just 25 points in the second half, turning it over 13 times in the second half. Tech had just 11 turnovers in the first meeting against TCU, rolling to an 82-69 victory in Lubbock on Feb. 12.
Along with Miles, TCU was led in scoring by Miller’s 11 points and Damion Baugh’s 10 points. Williams scored a team-high 21 points for Tech.
“It was a high-level game, which shouldn’t surprise you in this league and the way we’re playing and the way they’re playing,” Dixon said.
TCU returns to action against No. 5 Kansas on Tuesday night at Schollmaier Arena. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. It’s part of back-to-back games between TCU and KU as the Frogs travel to Allen Fieldhouse on Thursday.
This story was originally published February 26, 2022 at 7:21 PM.
