Oklahoma 83, TCU 63: Frogs drop second straight on the road

Brady Manek and his terrible mustache dominated TCU Saturday afternoon, as the junior forward scored 31 points and crossed 1,000 points in his career in the Sooners’ destruction of the Horned Frogs.

TCU started cold and stayed that way, missing their first 10 three-pointers until Desmond Bane broke what had been an 0-18 streak with 4:24 remaining in the first half. They would finish 8-36 on the game after a 1-16 first half. That spelled doom for what was one of the best three point shooting teams in the conference.

It wasn’t just the offense that let the Horned Frogs down Saturday though; Oklahoma got whatever they wanted on offense, shooting 53.7% from the field and 45.8% from three, and were 14-17 from the free throw line. They turned it over just 11 times and had 20 assists on the game. Meanwhile, TCU wasted a great turnover performance of their own (just eight), held tight in the rebounding battle (32 to Oklahoma’s 34), and got 25 points off of the bench.

If they had just shot the ball at their averages, they would have been right in this thing.

In addition to Manek’s 31, the Sooners got double-digit performances from three other starts. On the other side, Desmond Bane led TCU with 12 — 9 of which came in the first half — and Edric Dennis and Kevin Samuel added ten each. Jaedon LeDee gave the Frogs a boost off of the bench with 11 points and four rebounds, frustrating the Sooners on his way to a 2-2 from the field, 7-7 from the line effort. The Frogs went 9-12 from the free throw stripe overall. Bane led the Frogs in rebounds (five) and assists (five) as well.

This was definitely a hangover game for TCU, who got rolled on the road in Morgantown Tuesday night and dealt with travel difficulty on their way home that led to a short turnaround. That doesn’t work in the Big 12 though, as there are no gimmes, especially on the road. While losing at WVU and in Norman (a place the Frogs have never won) isn’t shameful, how the Frogs lost is absolutely concerning. The offense has completely abandoned them and the defense has suffered in hand. Things don’t get any easier, too; next up for TCU Basketball is a tough, ranked, Texas Tech team at Schollmaier Arena Tuesday night, precluding a trip to Arkansas for the Frogs’ part of the Big 12-SEC Challenge.

They’ll need to turn things around, and quickly, if they want to stay in the bubble conversation.