TCU basketball rebounds from loss to Notre Dame, beats North Texas
TCU men’s basketball rebounded from Friday’s overtime loss to Notre Dame with a gritty 65-55 win over North Texas on Sunday at Dickies Arena in the Coast to Coast Challenge.
“It was good to win a game with defensive rebounding, which has to be our calling card,” coach Jamie Dixon said. “I liked how we did it, this was a very dangerous game. We got put in a situation where we had to find this game and play with one day of prep.”
Junior forward Xavier Edmonds scored a season-high 16 points as the Horned Frogs (6-3) had to overcome another lackluster performance on defense in the first half. After TCU allowed Notre Dame to shoot 55% on Friday, North Texas (7-3) knocked down 52% of its shots in the first half as the Horned Frogs trailed 37-31 at halftime.
The game turned in the second half, as TCU upped its defensive intensity to hold North Texas to 30% shooting while getting key buckets from Edmonds and sophomore forward David Punch down the stretch.
“We take pride in defense. That’s been our biggest calling card,” Punch said. “We continue to work on that, and it showed today.”
Punch had 12 points, 12 rebounds, four steals and two blocks and was named MVP of the contest.
The key sequence came with just under seven minutes to play after North Texas’ David Terrell Jr. hit a 3-pointer to cut TCU’s lead to 50-49. The Horned Frogs’ offense was out of sorts at this point until Edmonds sparked the run that broke the game open.
Edmonds grabbed a missed 3-pointer by junior guard Liutauras Lelevicius and got the put-back to fall despite being fouled. Edmonds missed the ensuing free throw, but Punch kept the possession alive by knocking the ball off of a North Texas player.
A few seconds later junior guard Tanner Toolson hit a 3-pointer to put TCU ahead 55-49. After forcing a stop, senior guard Jayden Pierre continued the run with baseline drive that led to a layup as the Horned Frogs finally took control of the game with a 57-49 lead with 5:20 remaining.
Toolson would give TCU its biggest lead of the game, 59-49, with 4:54 remaining. Along with Edmonds, Toolson came up huge in the second half with eight of his 10 points in the final in the 12:16 of the game.
Toolson also made plays defensively as he forced a loose ball by Je’Shawn Stevenson and then hit the floor to secure the steal with less than five minutes to play.
“Tanner was huge for us coming off of the bench,” Dixon said. “I thought he defended well, he made some shots. We’re a team that’s going to use different guys.”
Sophomore forward Micah Robinson delivered the dagger with a nice baseline cut for a basket that put TCU ahead 63-51 with 2:33 remaining.
With the win over the Mean Green, TCU successfully navigated the toughest part of its nonconference schedule in the six-game gauntlet that featured wins over No. 18 Florida and Wisconsin and close losses to No. 2 Michigan and Notre Dame.
Even with the loss to New Orleans in the season opener, TCU picked up a number of quality wins that should prove valuable when it comes time for March Madness.
“We’re probably right there on the bubble,” Dixon said. “We won two great neutral-court games, this game and then we lost some home games. We’ve got some home games coming up that we have to establish a home-court advantage and take advantage of it and go win some games.”
Now the Horned Frogs will have four more games to fine-tune their offense before the start of Big 12 play against Baylor on Jan. 3.
The Horned Frogs next host Incarnate Word at 7 p.m. Dec. 15 at Schollamaier Arena.
This story was originally published December 7, 2025 at 7:06 PM.
