After a tough loss on the road at UNLV, TCU returned home to Daniel-Meyer Coliseum ready to play without junior guard Sammy Yeager, who was dismissed from the team on Tuesday. The Horned Frogs ended their four-game losing streak Wednesday night by defeating Wyoming 78-60.
TCU improved to 10-8 overall and 1-2 in Mountain West Conference play. Wednesday’s win was the Frogs’ first conference win of the season. With an 8-2 record at home, the Frogs showed the comfort of being at home was the needed boost to snap their losing streak.
“Tonight was a huge step forward offensively for our team,” head coach Jim Christian said.
After a recent slump, junior guard Ronnie Moss bounced back to lead the team with game highs of 27 points and 10 rebounds.
“We just had to focus a little bit harder,” Moss said. “There’s a long road ahead of us, and we can still turn it around.”
Four other Frogs reached in double figures in points, including sophomore forward Garlon Green with 16 points.
“Tonight we played the right way,” Christian said. “I just want to see [the team] respond. Based on the performance we had [at UNLV], we could have easily put our heads in the sand. We have got to try and find some consistency, and that’s what we are going to try and keep doing.”
Junior guard Hank Thorns had a game-high 10 assists.
“We bounced back,” Thorns said. “We had a hard practice; we had a talk, told ourselves to believe in one another [and] keep faith within the team and we came out.”
TCU was first to score, and the Frogs built a 20-10 lead with 11:22 to go in the first half. Once TCU started scoring points off fast breaks, Wyoming’s defense started to break down. TCU ended the first half with a 39-23 lead.
Early in the second half, the Cowboys cut the lead to 10 points, but they couldn’t stop the Frogs’ momentum. TCU pushed its lead to 26 points with 7:25 remaining in the second half, and Wyoming didn’t cut the lead below 17 points for the rest of the game.
TCU hits the road to take on Colorado State at Moby Arena on Saturday at 8 p.m. CST. The matchup will be televised live on The Mtn.
