TCU stumbles down the stretch, falling at West Virginia in regular-season finale
.JPG "West Virginia guard Kedrian Johnson, left, is called for a foul as he attempts to steal the ball from TCU guard Mike Miles during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Morgantown, W.Va., Saturday, March 5, 2022. (AP Photo/William Wotring)")
TCU basketball looked like a team that was playing its seventh game in a two-week stretch to close out the regular season on Saturday.
The Horned Frogs fell into another early hole and couldn’t sustain a second-half rally in what became a 70-64 loss at West Virginia.
“Maybe we couldn’t handle all these games in a row down the stretch,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “We came up with two losses on the road here, but that’s not an excuse. You’ve got to find a way. We’ve got to play better than that.”
TCU (19-11, 8-10 Big 12) heads to the conference tournament with consecutive road losses to Kansas and West Virginia. TCU also dropped to 0-10 all-time at West Virginia.
The Frogs stayed in the 5-seed for next week’s Big 12 tournament in Kansas City, Mo. TCU will face 4-seed Texas at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday at the T-Mobile Center.
But TCU is more worried about getting back on track than seeding at this point. This is a team that turned it over 18 times and lost the rebounding battle against West Virginia (15-16, 4-14 Big 12), which was riding a seven-game losing streak.
WVU scored the game’s first six points, stretched its lead to as many as 11 points in the opening half, and had a 39-33 lead by halftime. WVU led the entire game until TCU rallied in the second half.
The Frogs went on a 15-4 run, building a 59-53 lead with 6, minutes, 27 seconds left. TCU had its first lead of the day, 53-51, on a fast-break layup by Damion Baugh with 9:44 left. Baugh then had a steal and another fast-break layup on the next possession to extend TCU’s lead to 55-51.
The Frogs’ ended the run with a jumper by Mike Miles with 6:27 left but then suddenly went cold down the stretch. They didn’t make another field goal until Miles knocked down a 3-pointer with 7 seconds left.
By that point, the Mountaineers had battled back to regain control of the game.
“We got stops, so I think we should’ve had some opportunities to get to the basket better,” Dixon said. “Really, some of the passes were unexplainable. I mean, the turnovers were devastating and ignited them in transition. That’s what it is. You can come up with an excuse, but nobody is going to buy it. We’ve got to find a way, whatever the reason is, just bad decision making, I think.”
Along with the 18 turnovers, losing the rebounding battle 33-29 stood out in the loss. In the first meeting in Fort Worth, TCU dominated the boards against WVU 42-24.
“It’s all we talked about,” Dixon said. “I’m sure it’s all they talked about. We told them when you get out-rebounded by 18, that’s going to be the emphasis going into the next game. We’ve got to handle those things better knowing what’s coming at you.”
West Virginia was led by guard Taz Sherman, who had a game-high 25 points. He scored 23 points in the first meeting against TCU. Miles had a team-high 17 points for TCU.
TCU women fall
The TCU women’s team fell 61-50 to Kansas State in its regular-season finale Saturday at Schollmaier Arena.
The Frogs (6-21, 2-16 Big 12) ended the regular season on a 13-game losing streak. They will be the 10-seed in the Big 12 Tournament, facing 7-seed West Virginia at 8 p.m. Thursday in Kansas City, Mo.
This story was originally published March 5, 2022 at 4:30 PM.
