TCU comes close, then loses big to ‘better basketball team’ Baylor

There were plays that decided Baylor’s 86-71 victory against TCU on Saturday night at Schollmaier Arena.

A turnover here.

A defensive miscommunication there.

They were easy to spot, and TCU coach Trent Johnson could have spent a lot of time breaking them down.

Instead, the veteran coach laid out the most basic reason behind Baylor’s 15-point win.

“As hard as it is for me to say, they’re better than we are,” Johnson said. “Baylor’s a better basketball team. That’s just the way it is right now.”

It was Baylor’s ninth consecutive win in the series against the Horned Frogs, who have yet to win against their Waco rivals since joining the Big 12. Baylor’s average margin of victory in the nine-game winning streak is 19.4 points.

“They’re long, and they’re athletic,” Johnson said. “They’re powerful. For me, looking at that group early in the year, they’re probably as talented as anybody in the country. They cause a lot of problems for you because they’re deep, they shoot it, and they’ve got one guy who can really play, and that’s Prince.”

Taurean Prince, a 6-foot-8 senior forward, had 22 points and eight rebounds for the 19th-ranked Bears (21-8, 10-6). His 3-pointer, Ishmail Wainright’s 3-pointer and another Prince 3-pointer broke the game open after TCU had cut the lead to 57-55 with 9:10 left.

“We were in a zone, and we lost him,” Johnson said. “We lost Prince. He hit two deep 3s. We lost the best player on the floor.”

Each of those three 3-pointers followed a TCU turnover, and the Frogs’ upset bid had slipped away in less than 90 seconds.

Sophomore guard Malique Trent scored a career-high 25 points, and sophomore guard Chauncey Collins had 17.

“I just wanted to come out and make myself a presence,” said Trent, who did not play against the Bears in Waco, sitting out the first of three consecutive games. “I don’t think they really got a good taste of us last time because I wasn’t there. I just wanted to make myself available in the offense.”

Trent’s 3-pointer and dunk cut the Baylor lead to 68-62 with 6:15 left, giving the Horned Frogs, who fell behind 11-0 to start the game, one more chance to make a push.

But Baylor answered with a jumper from Prince — who else? — then a layup and a dunk by Johnathan Motley, and the game was secure again.

Motley also had 22 points for Baylor, plus nine rebounds. The Bears finished with a 45-21 rebounding edge, the largest by an opponent against TCU this season.

“Obviously, that’s where this thing got decided,” Johnson said.

This story was originally published February 27, 2016 at 10:51 PM with the headline "TCU comes close, then loses big to ‘better basketball team’ Baylor."