Per GoBearcats:
TCU opened an 8-0 lead in the first 1:15, then made six of its first 10 second-half shots to defeat Cincinnati, 75-57, on Saturday afternoon.
The two teams split the season series (Cincinnati won 81-77 in overtime on Jan. 16 at home), and it was TCU’s first win out of seven all-time meetings.
TCU made four of its first six deep attempts in the second half, and six of 10 overall to take its largest lead at 57-44 into the 11:31 media timeout. Even a 1-for-9 stretch by the Horned Frogs was too much to overcome, as they scored on back-to-back baskets to turn it into a 69-53 game with 5:04 left.
A pair of Aziz Bandaogo alley-oops and 3-pointers by Dan Skillings Jr. and John Newman III to overcome TCU’s fast 8-0 start that prompted a timeout at 18:45.
TCU went on a 9-0 run over 2:09 to take a 29-23 lead at 4:07, rallying back after Cincinnati first went ahead, and it never looked back.
Newman’s driving layup that began deep in the backcourt brought the Bearcats within 41-36 at 17:43. Back-to-back TCU treys still kept it to 47-40 at 15:03.
Point guards Jizzle James and Day Day Thomas shared the floor for 14:57, the most in any Big 12 game and second to only Dec. 19 against Merrimack.
FROM WES MILLER
“First off, we lost. Jamie Dixon’s team was really good tonight. I don’t think anyone in our locker room is pleased with this. I have a pretty good pulse on our team. Our guys are down about how they played, as they should be, because they didn’t play well. I thought our preparation was pretty good yesterday, but we made controllable errors that by this time of year, you want to clean that stuff up. TCU punished us today in transition for communication and focus errors, for turnovers and forced shots and poor shots and poor decisions with the ball. They were much quicker to the boards than us…they were the better team than us tonight by a stretch.”
UP NEXT
Cincinnati will remain in the Lone Star State to play at Houston, Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET.
