No. 21 TCU men’s basketball (9-1) cruised to an 88-43 victory over Mississippi Valley State on Sunday evening at Ed & Rae Schollmaier Arena, marking the team’s largest win in eight years.

The Frogs are now winners of seven straight as the team continues to work through the injury bug.

This time around sophomore big-man Eddie Lampkin Jr. was held out of the lineup as he nursed a back injury, allowing junior swingman Xavier Cork to start in his place.

Joined by junior guard Mike Miles Jr., senior guard Damion Baugh, redshirt senior forward Chuck O’Bannon Jr., and senior forward Emanuel Miller, this continued the theme of different starting lineups for each game thus far (10).

Three-point barrage

TCU was able to get off to a hot start, making their first six three-pointers.

This is a far cry from the 29% the Frogs were shooting from three for the season prior to yesterday evening.

“In practice, we’ve been shooting the ball a lot, working on our shot to be a better shooting team and tonight they were in a zone [defense] daring us to shoot so that’s what we did,” said Miles Jr.

“Once they go in, everybody’s happy.”

As TCU finished the game 9-of-18 from distance, happiness was the theme of the evening.

The Frogs’ confidence grew with every make as they simultaneously drained the life out of an already-struggling Devils team.

Though MVSU came into the game shooting 36% from three, TCU made it a point to thwart any of their outside chances.

The Frogs forced the Devils to shoot just 0-for-8 from three.

“They’re a good three-point shooting team, which was our emphasis,” said head coach Jamie Dixon.

“They shoot 36% from three, which we were concerned about and obviously they didn’t get any tonight, so that was something we were happy with for our guys and what they did.”

MVSU also had trouble scoring the ball and taking care of it, as they managed to have more turnovers (20) than field goals made (18) for the game.

Sharing is caring

Offensively, aside from the impressive three-point shooting, TCU boosted an 18 to five assist advantage that was evident in the halftime score: 53-20.

Recording an assist on 18 of its first 19 made field goals, the offense looked like a well-oiled machine.

Miles Jr. led the team in scoring with 15 points on 3-of-4 shooting from three, with Miller, Baugh, and Coles all contributing with double-figure efforts as well.

Not only did TCU manage to shoot 50% from three-point land as a collective, they also dominated on the interior, scoring 40 paint points.

The inside was seemingly open all game and the Frogs made sure to pack the paint with straight line drives, or attacking the rim in transition.

With 28 fast break points, MVSU had trouble containing the Frogs in the open floor, which led to many highlight plays in transition.

After Dixon previously voiced frustration regarding the teams lack of rebounding, the Frogs responded with a 43-27 rebounding advantage over the Devils.

Cork spoke about how serious Dixon takes rebounding the basketball, sharing that the team worked tirelessly on rebounding and physicality drills throughout the week to prepare them.

The drills are evidently paying off as TCU is now 7-1 this season and 107-35 overall under Dixon when they out rebound their opponent.

Now No. 21 TCU sets its sights on the Utah Utes (9-3) for their first road game of the season, aside from the 2022 Emerald Coast Classic in Niceville, Florida, on Dec. 21.

Tip-off is at 8 p.m. in Vivint Arena on Pac-12 Mountain.