The men’s basketball team pulled out a narrow victory at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum Wednesday night, beating the Wyoming Cowboys 79-78 in overtime.
With 19 seconds left in overtime, junior forward Edvinas Ruzgas hit a three-point shot to put the Horned Frogs in the lead for good. Senior forward Kevin Langford passed the ball to junior guard Keion Mitchem at the top of the key who then swung the ball to Ruzgas in the corner for the open shot.
“I was wide open and confident, shot it and made it,” Ruzgas said. “I tried to keep myself confident and make the shot.”
Langford led the Horned Frogs with a career-high 36 points. He was two rebounds shy of a double-double.
“It was good to get the points but even better to get the win,” Langford said.
Mountain West Conference points per game leader Brandon Ewing of the Wyoming Cowboys was held to 16 points, two points less than his season average. Ewing was almost silent in the first half, scoring only two points in the first 20 minutes.
Senior guard Sean Ogirri and senior forward Tyson Johnson led the Cowboys in scoring with 18 points apiece. Ogirri shot 44 percent from three point range and set Johnson for the three-pointer that would send the game into overtime.
The Horned Frogs depth came through in the game as the team scored 20 points from the bench as opposed to the Cowboys’ four.
“I think it’s important anytime you get a squad off the bench that helps you,” said TCU head coach Jim Christian. “Especially when some of the key starters weren’t playing well offensively, so it was big for us. Those guys gave us a good lift.”
TCU opened the game with a 7-0 run and controlled the game for the first 10 minutes. The Cowboys were able to get back in the game off second chances from offensive rebounds. They finished with 19 second-chance points while TCU only managed five.
TCU led the entire game until under three minutes left in the second half.
The Horned Frogs were able to hold the Cowboys to 31.3 percent shooting behind the three-point line, which is slightly above their average of 30.4 percent.
With the win, the Horned Frogs move to 13-6 on the season, including a 4-1 mark in conference play, topping the Mountain West.