TicketsFORT WORTH, TEXAS — The Cincinnati men’s basketball team fell to TCU, 73-63, on Saturday at Schollmaier Arena.
Senior guard Day Day Thomas scored 19 points, including five 3-pointers, and the Bearcats outrebounded the Horned Frogs, 37-30, but committed 19 costly turnovers.
TCU converted Cincinnati’s miscues into 24 points and was led by guard Jayden Pierre, who scored 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting on his Senior Day.
Cincinnati senior forward Baba Miller grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds but was held to four points by TCU’s defense. Senior wing Jalen Celestine scored 12 points on four 3-pointers, while junior guard Jizzle James added 11.
Cincinnati dropped to 17-14 overall and 9-9 in the Big 12, while TCU improved to 21-10 and 11-7 in league play. The Bearcats will be the No. 9 seed in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Tournament and face No. 16 seed Utah in the first round at 3 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
A Celestine 3-pointer cut TCU’s lead to one, 36-35, less than three minutes into the second half, but the Horned Frogs responded with a decisive 9-0 run and never relinquished control.
After Xavier Edmonds made consecutive layups, Pierre knocked down a 3-pointer to give TCU a 43-35 advantage. Two minutes later, Tanner Toolson converted a layup to push the Frogs’ lead to double digits for the first time.
Toolson later hit a 3-pointer to stretch TCU’s lead to 12 with nine minutes remaining, but James and freshman wing Shon Abaev responded with back-to-back triples to cut the deficit to 55-49 with 7:32 left.
TCU answered with an 8-2 run, capped by a Pierre layup, to extend the lead to 63-51 with 3:28 remaining.
The Frogs sealed the win at the free-throw line down the stretch. TCU finishing 15-of-21 for the game from the charity stripe, while Cincinnati made 4 of 6 free throws.
The first half featured eight ties and seven lead changes. TCU took a 32-29 halftime lead when forward Micah Robinson connected on a corner three at the buzzer.
Celestine knocked down two triples in the game’s first 10 minutes. His second was followed by a basket from backup post Halvine Dzellat to give Cincinnati a 15-11 lead with 10:59 remaining in the first half.
Pierre later capped a 6-0 TCU run with a fastbreak layup to put the Frogs ahead 19-17 at the 8:19 mark, prompting a timeout from Cincinnati head coach Wes Miller.
Sparked by Thomas, Cincinnati responded with a 5-0 run to reclaim a 24-22 lead.
TCU went back in front 27-24 when Liutauras Lelevicius connected on a three-pointer with 4:37 left in the half, but Thomas answered with a triple of his own 45 seconds later to tie the game.
###