Second-half run dooms TCU basketball against No. 12 Kansas
Despite an impressive first-half performance, Texas Christian University was unable to keep pace with No. 12 Kansas in a disappointing 74-61 defeat Wednesday night at Schollmaier Arena.
The Horned Frogs (10-8, 3-4) were optimistic that the momentum from Sunday’s last-second win over Baylor would propel them to another Big 12 upset that would get the program back in the conversation for the NCAA Tournament. Instead the Horned Frogs will think about what could’ve been after letting a Quad 1 win slip through their fingers.
“Obviously disappointed, I liked what we did the first 10 minutes or so, but we just couldn’t sustain it,” coach Jamie Dixon said. “Eventually our defense wore down and it got away from us. We never quite got it back to how we were.”
Considering the opponent, it was one of TCU’s best performances of the season, but it still wasn’t enough against a Jayhawks (14-4, 5-2) team that started the year as the preseason No. 1 team in the country.
Kansas was bigger, stronger and more talented than the Horned Frogs. That advantage became clear as the game got into the crucial moments of the second half.
A dunk by Trazarien White put TCU in front 48-47 and ignited the Schollmaier Arena crowd after White got tied up with All-American Hunter Dickinson. The dust-up led to technical fouls for both players and briefly seemed like a moment that would ignite TCU to go on another run.
Instead it seemed to wake the Jayhawks up as Kansas smothered TCU during a decisive 14-2 run that decided the game. Kansas guard Shakeel Moore played a big part during the run as he hit a 3 and picked off a lazy pass from TCU that resulted in a dunk that helped Kansas take a 61-50 lead with just 7:13 remaining.
Moore had only hit two 3s all season, but he hit three 3-pointers in the second half alone to surprise the Horned Frogs. Moore said the moment with Dickerson helped motivate the Jayhawks.
“We knew it wasn’t nothing serious, but it got us fired up,” Moore said. “The crowd got fired up with them so we had to create our own energy to move forward.”
It was a jarring turnaround as the Horned Frogs were on the verge of breaking the game open with a 13-4 run midway through the first half. It was one of the best stretches of the season for TCU as Brendan Wenzel hit multiple jumpers, Ernest Udeh hit a post shot and Noah Reynolds got into transition and finished a tough layup at the basket.
Reynolds’ bucket forced Kansas coach Bill Self to call a timeout with TCU leading 26-12 and that’s when the game began to turn. Dickinson went scoreless in the first 10 minutes of the game, but became much more aggressive down the stretch as Kansas chipped into TCU’s lead.
“I feel like our intensity went down,” Udeh said. “We got out played, but that run we went on wasn’t a mistake. We were locked in, we were doing all the right things we just got away from it.”
Dickinson scored all nine of his first-half points in the final nine minutes before halftime as he formed a formidable duo with five-star freshman Flory Bidunga.
Bidunga, starting in place of veteran Kansas forward K.J. Adams, was the most athletic player on the court and began to overwhelm TCU on the glass with his physicality down the stretch. Bidguna threw down a dunk and a layup on back-to-back possessions as Kansas tied the game at 33.
Vasean Allette was able to answer with a shot seconds before the buzzer and he was one of the catalysts to TCU’s taking a such a big lead in the first place. Allette’s talent as a pure scorer was needed against the Jayhawks’ fundamentally sound defense.
Allette was able to use enough of his craftiness to create looks against good defense and paced TCU with 11 points in the first half. Allette was TCU’s best offensive option in the first, but was neutralized in the second as he went scoreless until there was just 3:38 remaining in the game.
Dickinson and Bidunga didn’t need to do much in the second as Kansas’ guards started to come alive. Moore scored all 11 of his points in the second half while Wisconsin transfer AJ Storr chipped in 10 crucial points, including six during Kansas’s decisive run.
Five different Jayhawks scored in double figures compared to three for TCU. Reynolds led TCU with 14 points while Allette finished with 13.
After starting the season 9-0 at home, TCU has now dropped two straight home games. TCU will travel to Central Florida on Saturday.
This story was originally published January 22, 2025 at 8:17 PM.
