TCU 52, Oklahoma State 40: Bane leads Frogs to 3-0 start in league play

Fort Worth, TX - Desmond Bane scored 20 points on Saturday afternoon to lead TCU to a 52-40 win over Oklahoma State. The win pushes TCU to 3-0 in Big 12 play, their best start since joining the conference and first 3-0 start in conference play for TCU dating back to the 1997-98 season.

Bane filled the stat sheet on Saturday - he led all players in points (20), rebounds (9), assists (6), and steals (3) as TCU moved to 12-3 on the season.

He also reached another milestone in his TCU career.

Two made free throws with less than a minute remaining in the opening half pushed Bane past the 1,500 point mark for his TCU career. He’s the tenth player to eclipse 1,500 points in TCU basketball history.

He finished the day with 1,510 career points, good for eighth all-time. Bane now sits two points shy of matching Kurt Thomas (1,512 points), and 234 points behind TCU’s third all-time leading scorer Carven Holcombe (1,734).

Eclipsing Darrell Browder’s all-time record of 1,886 points will be tough. Bane would need to average 24 points/game to reach that mark.

On Saturday Bane carried the Frogs through a very bad offensive first half, scoring 14 of TCU’s 24 points. The Frogs shot 7-29 as a team (29.2%) from the floor, and 3-13 (23.1%) from deep.

Often times down the court there was little ball movement inside the perimeter, with hardly any player movement. There was also an absence of anything resembling an off-ball screen.

Fortunately for the Frogs, Oklahoma State decided to shoot even worse, connecting on just 28% of their first-half shots, for just 17 first-half points.

Bane helped TCU out to a 9-6 lead early, scoring seven straight points for the Frogs as fans still trickled into the stadium. He then scored the final seven points of the half for TCU - making four free throws before hitting a step-back three in the final seconds of the half.

TCU carried a 24-17 lead into the break.

The second half was a different story for the Frogs, but only slightly. They came out shooting well, pulling out to a 34-21 lead thanks to a corner three from Francisco Farabello - who was the only other Horned Frog in double-digits on the day with 10 points - and a pretty floater from Diante Smith in the lane.

Oklahoma State, who was just 2-19 from three point range on the day, followed their timeout with a 7-0 run of their own to cut TCU’s lead to eight, forcing Dixon to call timeout.

After several scoreless minutes for both teams, Farabello drilled another three from the corner, pushing the Frogs’ lead to 40-30.

Then TCU clamped down on defense again, holding the Pokes to just two points from the 11:37 mark of the second half all the way to the 2:54 mark - almost nine minutes of game time. As they did that, they extended their lead to 48-32, effectively putting the game out of reach.

Free throws from Farabello and a jumper from Edric Dennis rounded out the scoring for the Frogs on the day.

TCU still needs to find some consistency on offense, as they shot just 33.3% from the floor on the day. They won’t get away with shooting like that much more in the Big 12, as they head on the road for their next two games against West Virginia and Oklahoma.

Defensively, this team is playing incredibly well. Case in point, Oklahoma State’s sharpshooter Lindy Waters was held to 0-8 from the floor and 0-5 from deep on the day, marking his first scoreless game for the Cowboys since his freshman season.

From here, it’s a matter of being more efficient for TCU.

They travel to West Virginia for their midweek game this week, which tips on Tuesday night at 8:00pm, on ESPN U.

You can check out the full post game remarks here: