Frogs use big second half to rally, beat Tennessee

TCU guard Chauncey Collins shoots over Tennessee guard Devon Baulkman in TCU’s 75-63 win. Courtesy/Fort Worth Star Telegram

TCU outscores Volunteers 48-22 in final frame to snap losing streak

It took TCU nine tries, but the Frogs finally figured out how to beat a Rick Barnes-coached team.

TCU used a 22-5 run in the second half to knock off Tennessee, 75-63, at Schollmaier Arena on Saturday.

“At halftime I just told them, ‘Hey look, we’ve been here before.’ We need to be aggressive. Everybody needs to do their job,” TCU head coach Trent Johnson said. “We showed some courage and we kept our poise, meaning we had every opportunity to fold our tents.”

Four different Frogs scored in double figures in the win. Malique Trent led the way with 15 points.

The win snapped a five game losing streak for the Frogs.

“We felt like this was a need-win game. We all came in here and played that way,” said TCU forward Chris Washburn, who had a team-high nine rebounds. “Just the way everything’s been going, we’d lost three or four straight games. That’s why I felt like we needed to win this game.”

It was a tale of two halves in the contest.

Tennessee used some hot shooting, hitting 8 of 16 three-point attempts, to take a 41-27 lead to the halftime locker room. TCU was 0-10 when trailing at the half this season before the win.

Kevin Punter Jr. paced the Volunteers offensively. He scored 16 of his game high 24 points in the first half.

It was a back and forth game in the early going with four lead changes and five ties in the first ten minutes.

The Frogs shot only 25.8 percent in the first half en route to the 14-point deficit.

TCU got off to a hot start in the second half. Brandon Parrish’s three-pointer capped a 10-0 run to cut the deficit to 41-37.

“It’s been kind of the same thing the last couple of games when adversity starts coming a little bit,” first-year Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “What happens when it starts swinging the wrong way for us, we have too many (players) that just go and hide and put everything on KP, and everybody’s game-planning for him anyway. … He needs some help.”

The Frogs shot over 62 percent from the field in the second half and held Tennessee to under 24 percent from the field. The Volunteers were 0-for-15 from behind the three-point line in the second half.

The win moved TCU to 3-0 all-time in the Big 12-SEC Challenge. It was also TCU’s first over Barnes, who was 8-0 against the Frogs during his coaching tenure at Texas,

The Frogs are back in action on Tuesday night on the road against No. 1 Oklahoma. Tip off is set for 7 P.M. and will be televised on ESPNEWS. The TCU IMG Sports Network will have the radio call on 88.7 KTCU, with Brian Estridge and John Denton providing all the action.


Posted

in

,

by

Tags: