A late second-half push was not enough for TCU against top-ranked Baylor, as the Frogs fell to the Bears Saturday afternoon in Waco, 68-52.
“I was proud of our guys,” head coach Jamie Dixon said. “We fought.”
The loss is TCU’s third in a row, dropping them to 4-4 in Big 12 play. The win was the 18th-consecutive for Baylor, keeping them undefeated in the conference.
The Frogs struggled to stop Baylor guard MaCio Teague, who scored a game-high 19 points on 5-for-8 shooting from behind the arc.
Baylor made nine three-pointers as a team.
“Defensively, we talked about not giving them the threes, and they got nine of them,” Dixon said.
TCU, on the other hand, made just six of their 21 three-point attempts while turning the ball over 15 times. Baylor has forced 15 or more turnovers in 12 of their 20 games this year.
“That’s what they do,” Bane said about Baylor’s strong defense. “They’re the No. 1 team in the country for a reason.”
The roaring crowd at the Ferrell Center seemed to shake the Frogs up a bit to start the game. TCU went 1-for-8 with four turnovers in the first five minutes of play.
Meanwhile, Baylor’s offense was slicing right through TCU’s defense. The Bears scored six of their first 12 points via dunks, the last of which came off of an alley-oop that sent the crowd into a frenzy.
The Frogs would settle in shortly, though. After trailing 10-4 early, TCU battled back to tie the game at 17 with just under eight minutes to play in the first half.
Baylor then exploded on a 14-0 run to take full control of the game. During that time, the Frogs missed nine-straight shots and turned it over five more times.
TCU would gain some ground back before halftime, pulling within 11, but the damage had been done. The nation’s fifth-ranked scoring defense had held them to just 27% shooting as a team in the first 20 minutes.
Guard Desmond Bane finished 0-for-6 with zero points in the first half.
The pain would only continue for the Frogs in the second half. Teague hit three 3-pointers in the first four minutes of the half to put TCU behind 46-30 before they could blink.
Needing a spark, TCU turned to Bane, who spurred a 13-2 run by the Frogs to pull them within six. The senior had scored six points and assisted on three others during the span.
That was as close as TCU would get, though, as guard R.J. Nembhard had his pocket picked on the following play, and Baylor would never look back.
“We’re not playing good enough to beat the No. 1 team in the country at their place,” Dixon said. “We’re not getting it done on the road.”
Bane ended up with 14 points, all of which came in the second half. No other Horned Frog finished in double figures.
“I thought Bane got hot in the second half,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew said. “He’s a heck of a player.”
Center Kevin Samuel finished with six blocks for TCU.
Up next, the Frogs will look to regroup as they take on Oklahoma State on Wednesday. Tipoff in Stillwater, Oklahoma, is for 7 p.m.
