Thursday, February 21, 2008

Men’s basketball: TCU 66, Colorado State 64

By Pegasus News wire

The TCU men's basketball team connected on 27-of-28 free throw attempts en route to improving its overall record to 13-12 and 5-7 in Mountain West Conference action with a 66-64 victory over Colorado State on Wednesday evening at the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.

With the victory, the Horned Frogs improved to 13-12 overall and 5-7 in Mountain West Conference action while the Rams dropped to 6-19 and 0-11 in league play. The five victories for the Purple and White are the most triumphs for the Purple and White in Mountain West Conference action since joining the league three seasons ago.

The Frogs and Rams played extremely tight throughout the first 20 minutes of action as neither team was able to get more than a two-possession lead on one another. The Frogs were able to build a five-point advantage a handful of times with the last one coming at the 6:44 mark following a lay-in by junior John Ortiz (Cali, Colombia/Colby C.C.) to make the score 23-18.

After tying the game at 25-25 with 1:34 remaining in the first half, the Frogs were able score the final four points of the frame to a 29-25 advantage heading into intermission after Kevin Langford (Fort Worth, Texas/North Crowley H.S.) followed up a missed shot with a connection as time expired.

Ortiz collected 10 points - including 4-of-4 at the charity stripe - to go along with two steals in 17 minutes of action, and Langford notched nine points, six rebounds, two assists and one steal in 34 minutes of court time.

Colorado State came out firing in the second half of action as the Rams opened up the final frame on a 9-0 run to take a 34-29 lead following a trey by CSU guard Marcus Walker. The five-point advantage with 17:37 remaining in the game was the biggest lead of the game for the Rams.

Walker collected a double-double for the Rams as the CSU guard notched a game-high 20 points on 8-of-18 shooting to go along with 10 rebounds and two assists in 37 minutes of action.

The Frogs were able to respond with a 15-4 run of their own to take a seven-point advantage at 45-38 at the 13:13 mark after Keion Mitchem (Rochester, N.Y./Rochester East H.S.) connected on a three-pointer from the corner.

Colorado State was able to cut the lead down to one and two possessions during the final eight minutes of the game and were able to get within one points at 58-57 following a pair of free throws by Josh Simmons with 2:37 remaining.

TCU senior Brent Hackett (Fort Worth, Texas/Southwest H.S.) was able to seal the victory for the Frogs as the Fort Worth native connected on six consecutive free throws in the final two minutes to clinch the home triumph.

Hackett notched a team-high 19 points - including 11-of-11 from the free throw line - to go along with two rebounds, two steals and one assist in 32 minutes of action. For his career, the local talent has scored 1,038 career points - which moved him into 25th place in the all-time scoring records.

David Cohen collected 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting - including 2-of-3 from behind the three-point arc - to go along with four rebounds in 34 minutes of action in his first collegiate start.

The Frogs will be back in action on Wednesday (Feb. 27) as the Purple and White welcomes the University of Utah to the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum for a 7:00 p.m. start time.

Quotes from the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum

TCU head men's basketball coach Neil Dougherty on the team's free throw performance

"We won by two points so that was obviously a huge difference. It would have been different if we were making shots, but we couldn't get anything to go in so it really helped. I don't think that I've ever been in a college game where we made over 95 percent of our free throw attempts when having 20 or more tries."

Dougherty on the hard earned victory against Colorado State

"It was most important that we were able to grind this victory out. I give Colorado State a lot of credit because they played well, but we were able to keep fighting and fighting and came out on top in the end."

Dougherty on the Horned Frogs' ability to force 24 Ram turnovers

"We didn't make them pay as much as we could have, but we did do some things which was nice to see. We forced 24 turnovers so you're happy with that number because it shows that your defense is playing aggressive."

Dougherty on the competitiveness of Mountain West Conference action

"I expected the game to be very close because our conference is an extremely tough conference. Despite their record, Colorado State had some very close calls where they almost beat San Diego State and played BYU extremely close. They've been in every game, and even the first game against us, we had to grind it out to the three-minute mark."

TCU senior guard Brent Hackett on the victory over Colorado State

"They're a tough team. When you are in conference action, you can throw records out the window because everybody is going to bring their best game that night. Colorado State showed a lot of fight tonight, and they've got a lot of pride in their University and want to represent them to the best of their abilities."

TCU senior guard Neiman Owens on TCU's aggressive defense against the Rams

"The main goal for us on defense is to go as hard as possible. The coaches stress that in practice everyday, and we understand what we have to do out there. If our offense isn't clicking, we need to step it up on defense. Tonight, we were able to force some turnovers, and that turned out to be the difference in the game."

The Go Frog Five (Notes from the DMC)

- The Frogs scored 25 points off of 24 turnovers from Colorado State. The Purple and White scored more points off of turnovers against the Rams then they did in their last three games COMBINED - 21 points against New Mexico (eight), Wyoming (eight) and San Diego State (five).

- The Horned Frogs shot the second-highest free throw percentage for a game this season at 96.4 percent as the Purple and White connected on 27-of-28 of their charity stripe attempts. Following a miss by Kevin Langford in his second free throw attempts - the Frogs notched 26 consecutive free throw makes.

- The Frogs' bench out-scored Colorado State by a 26-10 margin - including eight by TCU senior Alvardo Parker (South Caicos, Turks & Caicos/Frank Phillips J.C.). The 20 points off of the bench marks the third time in the last five games that the Horned Frogs' bench has scored 20 or more points in an outing.

- The Frogs notched their 12th victory at the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum - which marks the 10th time in the DMC's 46-year history that TCU has collected 12 or more wins on their home floor in a season.

- With the victory over Colorado State, the Frogs improved their overall record to 8-5 against the Rams and the first time in program history that they've earned a sweep over their conference foe.

Source: TCU

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