Timely shooting did not seem to be in the cards for the Frogs tonight, as free throws and three-pointers were a staple source of scoring that vanished from the TCU game plan. The Horned Frogs (10-6, 2-2 conference) fell to the Colorado State University Rams (13-4, 3-2 Conference) 66-54 before a crowd of 3,842 fans.”We couldn’t do it from the free-throw line or the field tonight,” head coach Neil Dougherty said. “We just did not make shots. We were 12 of 15 from the free-throw line and two of 16 for three-pointers.”

The 7-foot-tall junior forwards in the Rams lineup, Jason Smith and Stuart Creason, continually disrupted the Frogs’ drives on offense with combining for 15 rebounds and nine blocks below their basket.

After jumping out to a 6-3 lead, the Frogs handed over their advantage after a pair of three-pointers by Rams Stephan Gilling and Tim Denson put TCU in comeback mode the rest of the evening. Even while clawing back to a brief 37-37 tie on the scoreboard, the constant play stoppages from both teams upset the rhythm of the Frogs’ game.

“We couldn’t get into a rhythm on offense tonight,” Dougherty said.

Creason, the former Coppell standout and conference leader in field-goal percentage, was all over the paint on both offense and defense, notching six blocks and 10 total rebounds.

“We would go to the basket early on, but then Creason would just in front of the rim and we couldn’t really get anything in,” Dougherty said.

The silver lining for the Frogs came from junior forward Alvardo Parker. After winning the opening tipoff, Parker ended up reaching double digits in points and tallied eight rebounds.

Dougherty said the TCU defensive performance was sufficient, but the limited offense hurt the final outcome.

“We just didn’t put the ball in the hole,” Dougherty said.

Senior forward Blake Adams helped carry the Frogs with his performance off the bench with 10 points and seven rebounds.

The loss put the Frogs’ conference record even at 2-2, but Dougherty said there is work to be done before their next game on Saturday.

“We are now four games into conference, and we can’t be disappointed much longer. We’ve got work to do,” Dougherty said.