A 10-minute stretch in the second half perfectly encapsulated TCU’s season, and might keep them out of the NCAA Tournament, as the Frogs fell to Texas 75-66 Wednesday night.
At the 13:20 mark of the second half, Mike Miles made an incredible move to open up a lane to the basket. He drove and scored, giving TCU a 48-38 lead and forcing Chris Beard and Texas to call timeout.
With 3:25 left in the game Andrew Jones made a free throw to put Texas up 62-57.
Over the course of those ten minutes, TCU went just 3-13 from the floor with five turnovers, while committing six fouls. They also went just 3-6 from the free throw line.
On the night TCU turned the ball over 17 times. Texas turned that into 30 points.
Simply put, TCU committed the same errors they’ve been making all season. They struggled to inbounds the ball, the dropped passes out of bounds, they forced bad shots at the end of the shot clock.
The loss is TCU’s fourth in their last five games. They led at halftime in three of those four losses, including Wednesday night.
Wednesday night’s loss moves them to 17-9 (6-8) on the season with four games remaining. TCU needs at least two more wins to have hopes of making the tournament. If they only get one of the last four, they’d need a deep run in the Big 12 tournament to help their cause.
Mike Miles led the Frogs with 17 points, while Micah Peavy added 11 more. They were the only two Frogs in double-digits. The Frogs shot 52.1% from the floor on the night, one of their better shooting performances of the season. But, turnovers, plus being out-rebounded 30-28 doomed TCU.
Texas got 42 of their points off turnovers and second chances.
Andrew Jones scored 21 points for Texas, while Marcus Carr scored 19 and Timmy Allen added 17.
TCU heads back to Fort Worth now, where they’ll host Texas Tech this Saturday at 5pm.