Thursday, February 28, 2008

Men’s basketball: TCU 67, Utah 61

By Pegasus News wire

The TCU men's basketball team recorded their 13th home victory of the season and improved to 14-12 overall in the 2007-08 campaign following the Horned Frogs' 67-61 victory over the University of Utah at the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum on Wednesday (Feb. 27) evening.

The Frogs continued to improve on their Mountain West Conference rankings as the Purple and White upped their tally to 6-7 while the Runnin' Utes dropped to 15-11 overall and 6-7 in league action.

In the early minutes of the game, the Runnin' Utes were able to jump out to a 12-4 lead on the Horned Frogs after connecting on a trio of three-pointers to go along with a three-point play off of the hands of Utah center Luke Nevill.

After finding themselves down by 11 points at 19-8 at the 9:47 mark in the first half, the Frogs were able to out-score the Runnin' Utes by a 22-10 margin - including a 13-2 run over the final 5:11 of the opening frame to take a 30-29 advantage heading into intermission.

In the second half of action, the Frogs were able to build their lead five points on several occasions, but the Runnin' Utes came back to take a two-point advantage at 52-50 with 6:42 remaining in the game following a pair of free throws by guard Luka Drca.

After tying the game at 52-52 following a pair of free throws by Kevin Langford (Fort Worth, Texas/North Crowley H.S.) the Frogs were able to take the lead at the 5:36 mark after a lay-in by senior Alvardo Parker (South Caicos, Turks and Caicos/Frank Phillips J.C.).

Langford recorded his 22nd double-digit scoring performance of the season as the TCU forward finished with 16 points to go along with seven rebounds and one assist in 33 minutes of action.

Parker finished the game with 14 points on 7-of-10 shooting to go along with five rebounds, three blocked shots, two assists and one steal in 23 minutes of action. The TCU senior led the Purple and White in assists in a game for the first time in his 56-game career with the Frogs.

The Frogs continued to build upon their lead as Brent Hackett (Fort Worth, Texas/Southwest H.S.) took the game to a six-point Frog advantage at the 1:03 mark when he connected on a jumper from 16-feet to take the score to 63-57.

Hackett tied a season-high with 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting - including 4-of-6 from the charity stripe - while adding four rebounds and one assist in 33 minutes of action.

Nevill finished with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting to go along with seven rebounds and one blocked shot in 21 minutes of action while Tyler Kepkay finished with 10 points, four rebounds and two assists in 30 minutes of court time.

The Frogs will be back in action on Saturday (Mar. 1) when the Purple and White travels to Las Vegas, Nev., for a Mountain West Conference-showdown against UNLV. Tip is slated for 6:00 p.m. Central Time for the Frogs and Runnin' Rebels.

Quotes from the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum

TCU head men's basketball coach Neil Dougherty on TCU's offensive performance

"I thought offensively, we played great tonight. We were more balanced and recognition is probably the best way to describe it. We were looking for Brent (Hackett) then looking to drive it inside to Kevin (Langford) and play off of that. That really worked well, and the kids stuck to it. Our pace was as good as it has been in a while."

Dougherty on the performance of forward Alvardo Parker

"It's amazing that after a season's grind that he's starting to get more juice and more life in that knee again. He exploded several times on the block that I didn't even see him get up there so it's not just his strength returning, but his quickness as well."

Dougherty on the senior leadership of the Frogs coming down the stretch

"I think that is a generality for everyone's seniors right now. Utah has Johnnie Bryant - who is a senior - and I'm sure that he wants to win also. All teams are looking at how many games they have left, and it should push that intensity. What we're talking to the underclassmen about is that they play like they want the underclassmen to do when they're the senior."

TCU guard Brent Hackett on the importance of the victory over Utah

"We knew that we were going to have to come together tonight and put together a strong team performance. I thought that we did that, and we all wanted to step up for one another and play as a single unit. We need to continue to play for one another for the remainder of the season, and that's what we plan on doing."

TCU senior Alvardo Parker on the team's play in the second half of action

"This was a tough game tonight, and we knew that going into the final minutes of the game - it was going to be a matter of who wanted it more. We just needed to stay focus on our game-plan - which we did - but they weren't going away so we had to dig down deeper to pull this game out."

The Go Frog Five (Notes from the DMC)

- The Frogs finished with eight turnovers in the game - but played strong as the game wore on and committed only one turnover in the final 25:14 of the game.

- With the victory over the University of Utah, the Purple and White recorded their 399th victory inside the confines of the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum and notched their 13th home victory of the season - which marks only the seventh time in the 46-year history of the DMC that the Frogs have collected 13 or more victories at home.

- Neiman Owens (Channelview, Texas/Channelview H.S.) appeared in his 119th consecutive game as a member of the Frogs - including his 101st consecutive appearance for the Purple and White.

- After setting a Utah school record with eight three-pointers against the Frogs in Salt Lake City, Johnnie Bryant was limited to just two three-point ATTEMPTS tonight. He has only had fewer than tonight's eight points on three occasions during the 2007-08 campaign.

- Ryan Wall (Coppell, Texas/University of New Mexico) started his first game of the season for the Horned Frogs and finished the night with seven points to go along with three rebounds, one assist and one steal in 21 minutes of action.

Source: TCU

See more stories in:

• Basketball > Men's College Basketball > Mountain West > Texas Christian University