Men’s Basketball: TCU succumbs to Texas Tech in road battle

The Horned Frogs have now lost three straight conference games.

The TCU Horned Frogs are now 10-10 overall and 3-6 in conference play after a 14-point loss to the Texas Tech Red Raiders. TCU has now lost three consecutive Big 12 games and has fallen to 11th place in arguably the most difficult conference in all of college basketball. Despite the considerable deficit at the end of the game, the Horned Frogs hung with the Red Raiders for much of the evening. The Frogs and the Red Raiders went bucket for bucket for much of the first half. Texas Tech jumped out to a quick 10-5 lead before Brenden Wenzel gave TCU a much-needed spark off the bench.

The sharpshooter scored five quick points to cut the Red Raiders lead to two with just over 14 minutes to go. The impressive bench production ensued as freshmen Isaiah Manning and Malick Diallo contributed the next four points. The Horned Frogs never took an advantage, but kept it close throughout the first half. Despite going up by as many as nine, the Frogs would always find a way to respond. After leading 28-19, TCU went on a 10-4 run to cut the Red Raiders halftime lead to only four. Diallo led all Frogs with six points at the half—tying a career-high for the freshman big man.

The Horned Frogs kept it close throughout the early portion of the second half. Texas Tech’s Chance McMillian scored five points to begin the latter half. The Red Raider guard was rivaled by TCU freshman David Punch, who scored the first four points of the half for TCU. Punch capped off his mini-run with a highlight-worthy steal and slam.

Following Punch’s jam, the Horned Frogs would fight back to cut the Red Raiders’ lead to one at 40-39. TCU’s offense would then stall, as the Red Raiders would go on an 18-7 run over the next seven minutes of action. TCU relied solely on Noah Reynolds to create as second-leading scorer Vasean Allette left the game with what was deemed as an illness. Behind knockdown second-half free throw shooting, the Red Raiders would keep a sizable advantage for the remaining 10 minutes of action.

Reynolds’ heroics and stout TCU defense would trim Texas Tech’s lead to seven with just under four minutes to go. Nevertheless, TCU continued struggling to find the bottom of the net as the time would wind down. After narrowing their deficit to seven, the Horned Frogs failed to score again until the last second of the game. The Red Raiders would go on to win 71-57.

The theme of the night was inefficient offense and miserable free throw shooting. TCU shot 35.1 percent from the field and 27.8 percent from beyond the arc. The Horned Frogs converted a mere 54.5 percent of their free throws against the Red Raiders. TCU has now shot 55 percent or worse from the line in three of their past five contests. The Frogs ranks 348th of 355 teams nationally in free throw percentage. Following tonight’s performance, TCU will likely fall into the bottom five.

The inefficient night from the floor cast a shadow over a solid defensive performance. TCU held the Big 12’s second-best offense to 11 points below its season average. The Horned Frogs would see only two players score in double-digits—Reynolds with 14 and Wenzel with 11. Diallo and Punch added eight apiece.

The Horned Frogs will look to right the ship with a bout against the Colorado Buffaloes at home on February 2 at 3:00 p.m. CT. Colorado is 9-11 on the season and 0-9 in conference play thus far.