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Shot
down
Frogs
blow out ranked Cardinals, demand national respect
Frogs
record program’s first victory against a top 10 team
since 1990.
By
Brent Yarina
Sports Editor
Corey Santee couldn’t keep himself from smiling in
the final minutes of Tuesday night’s game.
And he had every reason.
The junior guard had just scored 20 points, grabbed eight
rebounds, dished out five assists and recorded four steals
en route to leading the Frogs (10-12, 6-5 C-USA) to a
71-46 win over No. 10 Louisville.
“It was hard to keep it back,” Santee said.
“Coach was telling me to just have fun and put a
smile on my face and enjoy it. I was just trying to have
fun.”
Louisville head coach Rick Pitino had little trouble keeping
a smile off his face.
“I think there’s nothing better than a good
humbling ass kicking to get you back mentally and physically,”
Pitino said. “TCU deserves an awful lot of credit
because they gave us the ass kicking.”
Santee wasn’t the only Frog responsible for handing
Pitino a loss in his first visit to Daniel-Meyer Coliseum,
however.
Sophomore forward Chudi Chinweze stole the show early
in the first half, coming within 1 point and one rebound
of a double-double. He finished the night with that double-double,
scoring 13 points, grabbing 13 rebounds and recording
three blocks.
Chinweze said he was unaware of his impressive statistics
in the game’s first 20 minutes.
“I didn’t know about it at first,” Chinweze
said. “I just kept playing hard and some balls just
came to me.”
Senior guard Nucleus Smith, who had 17 points, six rebounds
and three steals, saved his best performance of the year
for a game that he called the biggest win of his career.
“This is at the top,” Smith said. “For
me, I have been here for four years and we have come close
to beating a lot of teams. But this is the best win so
far for me and the team.”
Behind the performance of these three, the Frogs controlled
the game from start to finish, much to the delight of
the 6,028 fans in attendance.
The Frogs took a 33-18 lead into halftime, a lead they
would never relinquish.
An early 13-7 Cardinals’ run in the second half cut
the Louisville deficit to under double-digits at 40-31.
Santee, however, responded with seven consecutive points,
two from the free-throw line, two on a layup and three
on a 3 pointer.
“We didn’t really ever look at the score really,”
Santee said. “(Dougherty) told us just to keep our
cool and calm down. We were going a little too fast at
times. We knew they were going to make a run, that’s
Louisville. It was all about holding our ground and standing
up for it.”
And, boy, did they ever stand up.
With great defense, the Frogs forced the Cardinals into
their worst shooting and scoring night of the year, as
Louisville hit on only 29 percent of their shots and scored
46 points. Sophomore forward Francisco Garcia and guard
Taquan Dean were held in check with 7 and 5 points, respectively.
The duo came into the game averaging a combined 27 points
a game.
The Cardinals’ poor night gives them their fourth
loss in their last five games, a streak that begun after
the team had won its previous 16 contests.
“We’ve had some great winning streaks, and now
it’s time to battle adversity, fight hard and get
as many wins as we possibly can,” Pitino said. “We
just got to get back to executing.”
Santee said nothing was going to keep the Frogs from losing
this big lead, especially following Saturday’s breakdown
against Tulane, in which the Frogs blew a 16-point lead.
“We were on our home court and we don’t really
want anyone coming in and beating us on our home court,”
he said.
The Frogs realize the importance of a win over a team
like Louisville.
“With this win we can’t sneak up on people anymore,”
Smith said. “The Marquette game people thought was
a fluke. Now, this game we have sent a message that we
are one of the teams that’s going out there trying
to win every game.”
Head coach Neil Dougherty continued to downplay the significance
of another victory over a quality opponent, just as he
did following the team’s win at Marquette.
“I don’t know if ranked or unranked means as
much to me as how our kids played against a very good
Louisville basketball team,” Dougherty said. “It
was good to see that. It was good for me to see how they
enjoyed competing. I couldn’t be happier with our
effort.” |
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Stephen
Spillman/Staff Photographer
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| TCU
junior forward Marcus Sloan and freshman guard
Neil P. Dougherty struggle with Louisville
freshman guard Chris Current in the late moments
of Tuesday’s game at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. |
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Stephen
Spillman/Staff Photographer
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| Cardinal
senior center Kendall Dartez attempts to block
TCU junior guard Marcus Shropshire’s
goal in the second half of the game. TCU beat
Louisville 71-46. |
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TCU
71, No. 10 LOUISVILLE 46
LOUISVILLE (17-5)
Whitehead 1-8 0-0 2, Garcia 3-7 0-0 7, Dartez 2-6 4-4
8, Dean 1-6 2-2 5, Jenkins 1-3 1-2 3, Tinch 0-1 4-4 4,
Diakite 1-3 0-0 2, Mohammed 0-2 0-0 0, Johnson 0-0 0-0
0, Current 0-0 0-0 0, Daniels 1-1 2-2 4, O’Bannon
3-7 1-2 9, George 1-5 0-0 2. Totals 14-49 14-16 46.
TCU (10-12)
Chinweze 6-11 1-2 13, Ibikunle 2-3 0-0 4, Smith 4-10 7-7
17, Santee 6-11 6-6 20, Shropshire 2-11 5-6 9, Sloan 0-2
0-0 0, Dougherty 0-0 0-0 0, Markley 0-1 0-0 0, Curtis
1-1 0-0 3, Adams 0-0 0-0 0, Valsin 1-1 0-1 2, Pierce 0-4
3-4 3. Totals 22-55 22-26 71. |
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