TCU Beats Houston at Buzzer
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HOUSTON—Senior guard J.R. Cadot delivered another huge play for the Horned Frogs Saturday night, laying the ball in at the buzzer to give TCU an 81-80 victory over Houston at the Cougars’ Hofheinz Pavilion.
The win moved TCU to 4-2, ending a two-game skid. Houston fell to 3-2 with its second consecutive loss. It was the Frogs’ second straight win in the series against the Cougars.
Cadot helped TCU avert a disastrous finish, as the Frogs led by as many as 15 points overall Saturday and by eight points with just over a minute to play. Following a layup by junior forward Adrick McKinney that gave TCU a 71-63 advantage with 1:29 remaining, the Cougars scored 10 points in the game’s final minute to take an 80-79 lead. A layup by guard J.J. Thompson put the Cougars on top with only 6.8 seconds on the clock.
Following a TCU timeout, Cadot provided the play of his TCU career. The Frogs inbounded the ball under the Cougar basket to sophomore forward Amric Fields, who found Cadot downcourt in front of the TCU bench. Cadot, who drove to the basket, missed the initial layup with roughly two seconds remaining on the clock. He was able to fight successfully for the offensive board and threw the ball up over his head while falling away, and the ball found the hoop as the horn sounded.
Game officials reviewed the final shot before confirming that Cadot had in fact released his shot prior to the buzzer. The basket was thesecond big play of the past week for Cadot, who also provided the winning points on a layup and foul shot during last Friday’s 57-55 win over Virginia at the Paradise Jam.
Cadot was one of five players to finish in double figures for TCU with 11 points, while
he added a game-high eight rebounds. Senior guard Hank Thorns actually led the Frogs in scoring with 15 points, all of which came in the second half. Thorns went 3-for-4 from 3-point range to lead TCU to a9-of-20 team effort from beyond the arc, while he pitched in five assists.
Fields added 14 first-half points for TCU, as he finished the contest 6-for-9 from the field. Junior guard/forward Garlon Green totaled 13 points in a return to his hometown, while freshman guard Kyan Anderson added a career-high 10 points.
Houston also had five players score in double figures, led by Alandise Harris with 16 points and Joseph Young with 14. Young went 4-for-6 from outside the arc, including a pair of treys in the game’s final minute to help fuel the Cougars’ furious rally. He added a game-high six assists.
TCU again ran into a hot-shooting opponent, as Houstonwent 30-of-55 overall from the field (54.5 percent) compared to a rate of 46.9 percent for the Frogs. TCU was able to match UH on the glass with 34 rebounds, including 15 offensive boards. Junior forward Adrick McKinney recorded six of his seven rebounds on the offensive end.
After a back-and-forth affair early in the first half, TCU jumped out to a 15-point lead with the help of a 17-2 run near the end of the period. The Frogs reeled off a string of 12 consecutive points that started with three straight buckets by Anderson, followed by a Cadot 3-pointer. Fields finished off the run with a jumper with 3:46 remaining.
The Cougars interrupted the streak with a pair of freethrows by Kirk Van Slyke, but the Frogs were not finished. McKinney recorded back-to-back layups, the second of which resulted in a 3-point play when he was fouled by Thompson. McKinney sank the free throw to put TCU on top by a 41-26 count with 2:51 remaining in the half.
Houston responded with an 8-0 run, but Fields hit a long jumper from the baseline inside the final 30 seconds to give the Frogs a nine-point edge at the half, 43-34.
The Cougars knotted the game up early in the second half, as the squad opened the period by making each of their first field-goal attempts. TCU responded with Thorns again providing his team with a second-half lift, a trend that
TCU hopes to built on its big road victory Wednesday, when it returns home to play host to Lamar at 7 p.m. at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.
