Fort Worth, TX (SportsNetwork.com) - A couple of Lone Star State programs get together on Monday evening, as the Texas Longhorns pay a visit to the TCU Horned Frogs in a Big 12 Conference showdown at the Wilkerson-Greines Center.
The Longhorns are coming off a monster victory over nationally-ranked West Virginia on Saturday evening, taking down the Mountaineers at home by a final of 77-50. The win snapped a two-game slide by Texas, moving the program to 2-2 in conference play at 9-2 at home.
When it comes to playing true road games this season, the Longhorns have split four such endeavors.
At one point the Horned Frogs were one of the hottest teams in the nation with 13 straight wins to open the campaign, but all of that effort came against mostly weaker, non-conference foes. The start of the Big 12 schedule saw the team drop three straight to WVU, Kansas State and Baylor. TCU finally stopped the bleeding two days ago with a 62-42 thrashing of Texas Tech on the road.
In a series that dates back a century, Texas owns a 104-62 advantage over the Horned Frogs. The Longhorns have won nine in a row and 13 of the last 14 overall, with the lone victory for TCU being a 102-98 decision in 1995. The most recent meeting took place last season as Texas posted a 66-54 triumph at home.
The Texas defense was all over the Mountaineers on Saturday, limiting the visitors to a mere 24.1 percent shooting from the field as they finished with a total of just 13 field goals, against 17 turnovers. The 'Horns also had some issues with miscues, logging 15, but in their case they made good on not just 42.9 percent from the floor, but also 31-of-37 at the free-throw line in order to secure the lopsided victory.
Cameron Ridley was responsible for a team-best 19 points, six rebounds and four blocked shots as he converted all but two of his 10 shots from the floor. Jonathan Holmes and Myles Turner both contributed 16 points, the former pulling down a team-best 11 boards and hitting all but one of his 12 shots at the charity stripe.
As they showed against West Virginia, the Longhorns are rounding into one of the more dominant defensive units in the nation as they give up only 56.8 ppg. Opponents are shooting a mere 34.4 percent from the floor and 30.8 percent behind the 3-point line. Helping Texas to generate 70.2 ppg at the other end of the floor are Turner (11.9 ppg), Holmes (11.6 ppg), Isaiah Taylor (11.1 ppg) and Javan Felix (10.2 ppg).
For the fourth time this season, the Horned Frogs held an opponent to less than 50 points, but this time around it came against a quality foe in Texas Tech two days ago at United Supermarkets Arena. The 20-point margin of victory was the largest in the series since 1997.
Texas Tech, which fell behind 6-0 in the opening minutes of the meeting, shot only 5-of-25 from the floor in the first half and then 6-of-23 after intermission, finishing the meeting at 22.9 percent accuracy from the field overall and just 3-of-16 behind the 3-point line. Kyan Anderson took the lead for the TCU offense with his 19 points, followed by Chauncey Collins with 10 points in 19 minutes off the bench.
On a team that is producing only 60.2 ppg, while giving up 61.0 ppg in conference play, Anderson leads the way with 15.5 ppg thanks to his 81.5 percent effort at the free-throw line. Unfortunately, the rest of the team struggles at the charity stripe as the group overall is connecting on only 61.5 percent at the line in those four league bouts. Trey Zeigler may have failed to reach double figures against Tech, but he is accounting for 13.3 ppg nonetheless.
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