By Danny Horne staff reporter The TCU Lady Frogs basketball team went into Saturday afternoon having lost 17 consecutive games to Southern Methodist University. The Mustangs stretched that streak to 18 and their series record against TCU to 36-7 after an 82-63 Western Athletic Conference victory in Moody Coliseum. SMU (12-5, 5-0 WAC) took what was a one-point half-time lead and turned the game into a familiar sight for TCU against SMU in women's basketball. TCU (11-10, 2-4) was outscored 11-2 in the first three minutes of the second half. SMU junior guard D-dra Rucker led the early second half attack from which TCU never recovered. She scored 12 points during the decisive 27-10 run that put SMU up by 18 points midway through the half. "She scored just four points in the first half," SMU head coach Rhonda Rompola said of Rucker. "I wish she would have more frequent stretches like the second half, though." Rucker, SMU's leading scorer this season, finished the game with 22 points on 7 of 17 shooting. SMU shot 37 percent in the first half, but was bolstered by a 59 percent performance in the second half. Despite trailing by just one point at halftime, the Lady Frogs made only 10 of 28 shots in the half. "I thought we could have been up by five or 10 points at halftime, but we did not take advantage of our opportunities," TCU head coach Jeff Mittie said. TCU was nine for 36 from the field and finished 19 for 64 for the game. "They were more aggressive on defense, but we did not respond by being more aggressive in going out and getting the ball," Mittie said. Junior guard Jill Sutton played all 40 minutes for TCU tallying a season-high 18 points including four three-pointers. Freshman center Kim Walter scored in double figures for the fourth consecutive game with 15 points but never got going in the second half as SMU shut down the inside game defensively. Sutton previously said the game plan was to get the ball inside and create open shots on the perimeter as a result. After the inside was shut down, the outside shooting never stepped up. Junior guard Diamond Jackson chipped in 10 points but was three for 15 for the game and zero for eight from three-point range. Overall, the Lady Frogs shot 25 percent from behind the three-point arc while SMU shot 47 percent. SMU senior forward Karlin Kennedy paced the Mustangs in the first half with 15 points and 11 rebounds. "Kennedy was basically the offense in the first half," Mittie said. "But when Rucker got hot in the second half, they had a good one-two punch." Sutton said TCU had planned to stop Rucker and Kennedy from dictating the tempo of the game. Rucker and Kennedy controlled the second half and TCU could not keep up amid the play of the SMU defense.
Danny Horne bravestcu3116tcu@mindspring.com
By Rusty Simmons staff reporter TCU's junior center Derrick Davenport blocked three Mustang shots and made Southern Methodist players alter their shooting position on more than 10 others. Davenport's play on offense Saturday night overshadowed his defensive ability, which now has him one blocked shot shy of the TCU single-season record of 67. With under a second left in the game, Davenport grabbed an offensive rebound and made a put-back attempt to cap a 16-point, 10-rebound night for him, and a 92-75 victory over SMU. The 175th meeting between the Frogs and Mustangs was played in front of 7,201 fans, the largest attendance in Daniel-Meyer Coliseum since TCU joined the Western Athletic Conference. "By far, this was our most exciting game so far," TCU head coach Billy Tubbs said. "The crowd makes it a good game. SMU had people hollering, and we did too." TCU built an 11-point lead in the first half, but SMU cut it down to seven by the break. When junior swingman Ryan Carroll picked up his fourth foul and left the game with 15:23 remaining in the game, the Mustangs gained their first lead of the second half. The Frogs trailed by five points with eight minutes remaining but took the lead for good with a 14-2 run led by senior forward Marquise Gainous and freshman forward Bingo Merriex. Gainous scored eight of his game-high 25 points in the final eight-minute stretch, and Merriex scored 10 of his 16 in the same time span.
Tubbs said Merriex's play was a key in the TCU win. "(Merriex) made some big baskets down the stretch for us," Tubbs said. "He got some physical rebounds and made some big baskets." Merriex guarded SMU's Jeryl Sasser, the 1999 WAC Mountain Player of the Year, for the majority of the game. Merriex held Sasser to 12 points and forced him to turn the ball over six times. "I just locked (Sasser) up and kept him of the boards," Merriex said. Junior point guard Thomas McTyer gave TCU the lead with six minutes left on a driving layup. But the Frogs took the momentum for good on his next possession. McTyer was intentionally fouled by SMU's Stephen Woods on a breakaway layup attempt. TCU converted the play into four points as McTyer made a pair of free throws and Gainous scored on a move from the post. The Frogs, who are among the nation's top five free throw shooting teams, made 15 of 18 attempts from the foul line. TCU also shot 51 percent from the field, while holding SMU to 35 percent. But Gainous said the Frogs' rebounding was as important as the team's shooting proficiency. "Practice was good, and that comes out in the game," he said. "They were missing a lot of shots, and we were getting the rebounds." SMU actually outrebounded TCU 46-42, but the margin is a far cry from the Mustangs' average. SMU, the WAC's leading rebounding team, came into the game outrebounding opponents by a margin of 7.3 a contest. The Frogs, now sporting a two-game conference winning streak, have two WAC matchups on the road this week against Rice and Tulsa. Tubbs said the team's success against SMU should play a role in their success this week. "(The victory over SMU) lets us know what we can do," he said. "SMU is an excellent club. The key is we did it down the stretch."
Rusty Simmons
By Matt Stiver assistant campus editor When coaches select their lineups, they usually attempt to place the best players on the court at the same time. When TCU men's basketball coach Billy Tubbs announced his starters before Saturday night's contest with Southern Methodist University, his selections included forwards Marquise Gainous and Derrick Davenport. As he has done in each of TCU's 22 games this season, Tubbs left freshman guard Bingo Merriex as a reserve. With 7:41 remaining in the game and TCU trailing SMU 65-60, Tubbs reunited Gainous and Davenport on the floor with Merriex. The Frogs closed the game on a 32-10 run that ran the Mustangs back to Dallas, icing their 92-75 victory. The comeback was keyed by the shooting and defense of Gainous, Davenport and Merriex. Gainous started the rally by draining a jumper off a Davenport rebound that brought the Frogs within 65-62. The next time TCU had possession, Merriex converted a jump shot to bring the Frogs within 65-64. Following a Gainous rebound, junior guard Thomas McTyer drove to the basket, split two SMU defenders and laid the ball in the rim. That gave the Frogs a 66-65 lead they never relinquished. Each of those three baskets were directly affected by either Gainous, Davenport or Merriex. While TCU touts Gainous, (25 points, nine rebounds, 8-8 free throws and four blocks against SMU) as an All-American candidate, Merriex and Davenport remain lesser known. The 6-foot-6-inch Merriex (16 points, 6-7 field goals, 4-5 three-point field goals), who said he learned everything he knows about basketball from his father, drained his first four three-pointers of the game, usually with Mustang defenders leaping in his face. When SMU drew to within 76-71 with 3:21 left, Merriex drained a long three that put the Frogs up by eight. The Mustangs never got closer. Though Merriex is a relatively unknown player, SMU head coach Mike Dement said he knows the name Bingo. "The difference in the game was Bingo hitting big three after big three," Dement said. "He's tall and difficult to guard." Tubbs said Merriex made his presence felt. For the final 10 minutes, he was matched up on defense against SMU's All-American guard Jeryl Sasser. Sasser finished with 16 points. "Bingo hit some big shots," Tubbs said. "But something you probably didn't notice is that he did a great job defensively when we went man-to-man in the last seven minutes. You can't shut Sasser down, but he did about as good as you can." Merriex said he felt good when he got on a hot shooting streak. "Everything I put up was going in," Merriex said. Davenport (16 points, 10 rebounds, 7-11 field goals and three blocks), who played at the same junior college as Gainous, came within one block of Kurt Thomas' season record of 67. His blocks per game average of three would be a TCU record.
Matt Stiver
By Chris Gibson staff reporter The TCU men's swimming and diving team was defeated Friday night by No. 14 Southern Methodist University in a Western Athletic Conference meet held at the Rickel Building. SMU swimmers captured 11 of the 12 events, posting a 129-80. "They came in here and really swam well," head coach Richard Sybesma said. "We knew they had a strong team, but I feel like we still matched up pretty well with most of them." One of TCU's swimmers who matched SMU stroke for stroke was junior Ryan Mamarella. He won the 500-yard freestyle (4:38:08) and placed third in the 200-yard freestyle (1:44:11). "These (competitions) are really hard to predict," Mamarella said. "I just came into this meet hoping to swim well against good competition, but I think we did a good job as a team in a meet where we knew we needed to swim our best to have a chance to win." Sophomores Josh Pipes and Scott Adkins swam to second-place finishes in the 100-yard butterfly (51:20) and the 100-yard breaststroke (59:17). Freshman Aaron Ewert finished third in the 50-yard freestyle (21:72) and placed second in the 100-yard backstroke (51:36). "Mamarella, Adkins and Ewart all did well," Sybesma said. "Pipes really showed what a tough competitor he is tonight." The Frogs tried a different strategy in the 200-yard freestyle relay event by letting their faster swimmers lead off for each of the three relay teams. In the past, TCU has used the fastest swimmers to close out the relay events. "What we like to do when we're swimming against a good team like SMU is try to get the lead early and hopefully hold it," Sybesma said. "If you can get out in front early, you usually have a better chance of winning." TCU begins its preparation for another nationally ranked team this week as the team travels to Austin to take on No. 1 Texas Longhorns Friday. But the Frogs still have their minds set on the WAC Championships in late February. "We're at a part of our season where we're coming off some really intense workouts that we had over Christmas," Mamarella said. "Now we're gradually decreasing the intensity of our workouts and beginning to work on faster movements to get ready for the WAC Championship meet."
Chris Gibson
By Chris Gibson staff reporter Juniors Kim Collins and Darvis Patton picked up three individual victories this past weekend at the Houston Classic Indoor Track & Field meet at the University of Houston. Patton took the top slot in the 200-meter dash and the long jump. His time of 21.06 in the 200-meter is the nation's fastest time by a collegiate sprinter this season, automatically securing him a spot at the NCAA meet to be held in March in Fayetteville, Ark. Collins also captured a victory for the second straight week in the 60-meter dash, finishing in 6.63 seconds and knocking .01 off his season best, which he posted last week at the OU Classic in Norman, Okla. "We really ran good, especially on the men's side," head coach Monte Stratton said. "Darvis Patton had an excellent meet along with (junior) Roy Williams. I'm not sure if they kept score, but the men may have won the meet." The TCU men's team took three of the four top spots in the 60-meter dash. Adding to the victory by Collins, junior Lindel Frater placed second (6.69) and Patton finished fourth (6.75). In the women's events, senior sprinter Dywana Crudup broke the tape in 7.48 seconds beating the previous school record of 7.50 seconds set in 1999. Distance runner sophomore Katie Singleton's 9:59:35 in the 3,000-meter race fell just shy of the school record of 9:58:00 set by Glady's Keitany last year. "This was a very good event for us," Stratton said. "We're positioning ourselves very well for the NCAA meet. We've already qualified six of our kids and hope to pick up a few more in the weeks to come. We hope to be well represented in the NCAAs." This past week the men Frogs moved eight spots, jumping to No. 13 nationally in the latest release by Trackwire, a national news service specializing in collegiate track. Next up for TCU is the Arkansas Pre-National Meet to be held on Feb. 11 and 12 in Fayetteville.
Chris Gibson |
"Every shot I took felt good,"
Merriex said, who made four of his five three-point attempts.| The TCU Daily Skiff © 1998, 1999 Credits |