Nov. 13, 2007
Final Stats
The defense of the TCU men's basketball team held Rice to its second fewest point total in six seasons as the Frogs rolled past the Owls by a 76-49 margin on Tuesday evening at the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.
With the victory, the Frogs improved to 2-0 on the season for the third time under TCU head men's basketball coach Neil Dougherty.
"I'm happy and excited to be 2-0 because we played well enough to win this game," said Dougherty. "For about 12 to 15 minutes in the first half, we played very, very well on both ends of the court. We made some nice shots, some great plays and we were very aggressive. I think that we still need to make some adjustments and improvements in order to continue to get better."
Much of the credit for the victory comes in the hands of the Frog defense as TCU held Rice to 24.1 percent (13-of-54) shooting on the evening, including 16.7 percent (2-of-12) from behind the three-point line. In their game of the season, Rice connected on more free throws (21) than it did on field goals made (13) en route to falling to 0-1 on the 2007-08 campaign.
The Owls came out strong in the first half as Rice was able to jump out to a three-point advantage at 9-6 at the 15:56 mark following a lay-in by senior Patrick Britton. Following their three-point lead, the Frogs went to work on both ends of the floor and were able to rallying off a 34-9 run in the final 15 minutes of the half to take a 40-18 advantage into the locker rooms.
The Frogs were able to take the lead for good at the 14:52 mark when senior Neiman Owens (Channelview, Texas/Channelview H.S.) picked the pocket of Rice guard Aleks Perka en route to securing the easy fast break lay-in to give the Purple and White a 10-9 advantage.
The Frogs used their depth in the paint to dominate the Owls as TCU scored their next 10 pionts in the lane before Keion Mitchem (Rochester, N.Y./Rochester East H.S.) connected on a three-pointer with 8:36 remaining in the first half to give TCU a 23-13 advantage. The Frogs scored 26 of their 40 points in the paint during the game's first 20 minutes and finished with a 36-18 advantage in the scoring category.
TCU sophomore
Jason Ebie (Houston, Texas/Alief Elsik H.S.) gave the Frogs their biggest lead of the first half at 24 points with 1:57 remaining in the contest following a lay-in to make the score 39-15. Ebie scored four of his six points in the first half of action.
The Purple and White didn't let up on either side of the ball in the second half as TCU secured a comfortable double-digit lead and never allowed the Owls the opportunity to get back into the game. TCU recorded leads of 31 points on three occasions during the frame, but held its biggest advantage of 32 points following a three-pointer by senior Ryan Wall (Coppell, Texas/University of New Mexico) at the 1:11 mark to make the score 76-44.
Alvardo Parker (South Caicos, Turks & Caicos/Frank Phillips J.C.) continued his strong play as the TCU senior notched his first double-double of the season with a 10-point, 11-rebound performance while connecting on 5-of-8 field goal attempts. In two games this season, Parker is averaging 14.0 points and 9.5 rebounds per game for the Frogs.
TCU freshman Luke Tauscher (Fort Worth, Texas/Southwest H.S.) was the second member of the Frogs' program to notch double-digits in the rebounding department as the rookie grabbed a career-high 12 boards, including seven on the defensive side. He also added six points and one blocked shot in 18 minutes of action.
Henry Salter (Gulfport, Miss./Mississippi Gulf Coast College) notched a double-digit scoring performance for the second straight contest as the TCU junior scored 11 points and seven rebounds in 25 minutes of action.
For the game, the Frogs connected on 37.7 percent (26-of-69) of their field goal attempts, but dominated their opponents on the boards for the second straight game by a 59-34 advantage.
The Frogs will be back in action on Saturday (Nov. 17) when TCU welcomes Arkansas-Pine Bluff to the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum for a 1:30 p.m. tip-off.
The Go Frog Five (Notes from the DMC)
- The 27-point triumph for the Frogs was their largest margin of victory over Rice since a 97-67 win on January 29, 1998.
- The Frogs only recorded one game last season of 50 or more rebounds, which was in a double-overtime victory over UT Arlington. This season, the Purple and White have recorded two 50-plus rebounding performances and have notched 111 total rebounds compared to 68 for opponents. TCU is averaging 55.5 rebounds per game compared to 34.0 for opposing teams.
- Parker and Tauscher became the first set of teammates under Dougherty to record double-digit rebounding performances in the same game.
- TCU had 12 of the 14 players to see action on the floor score at least two points in the game.
- The Frogs will be looking to go 3-0 for the third time under Neil Dougherty on Saturday against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. With a victory over the Lions, TCU will be 3-0 in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons.
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