By Matt Stiver assistant campus editor When the TCU men's basketball team ran out of the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum tunnel Saturday night to begin its final warm-up, junior forward Myron Anthony slipped and fell on the court. Anthony picked himself up and after a little ribbing from his teammates, carried on. Against the San Jose State Spartans, the Frogs emulated Anthony. They fell behind early but played their way back into the game. Trailing by 19 with 13:50 to play in the game, the Frogs picked themselves up and closed the game on a 43-19 run to cap a 78-73 victory.
"We were able to get back in it and fight and come together as a team," Merriex said. "This win lets us know that if we play team basketball, anything can happen." Merriex, as has been his custom all season, came off the bench and hit three pointer after three pointer. He made a three pointer with 3:05 to give the Frogs a 66-63 lead they would not relinquish. Head coach Billy Tubbs said the situation the Frogs placed themselves in was not enviable. "I'd never want to do that again," Tubbs said. "Being down 19 to them is like being down 36 to another team. For the most part, we were getting the ball where we wanted in the first half. We just couldn't make shots." Senior forward Marquise Gainous, who was shut out in the first half, came around in the second. Gainous scored all of his 19 points and went 10-11 from the free-throw line in the second. During a 26-6 TCU spurt that gave the Frogs their first lead of the game, Gainous scored 12 points. He went 7 for 7 from the line and nailed a three pointer. His two free throws with 4:54 left gave TCU its first lead of the game. Tubbs said the Frogs returned to their roots during the comeback. "We basically went back to our base offense," Tubbs said. "We pushed one of our defenses out a little further, and I don't think (San Jose) adjusted very quick to that." Though the Frogs were out-rebounded 45-29, they did come down with one crucial board. With eight seconds left and the Frogs clinging to a 74-71 lead, David Egans of San Jose fired up a potential game-tying three pointer. When it clanged off the rim, Gainous grabbed the rebound and was fouled. He calmly iced the game by sinking both free throws. As they did against Tulsa on Feb. 5, the Frogs came out firing blanks. TCU starters combined for six points on 3-13 shooting (23 percent). San Jose starters, on the other hand, scored 34 points on 15-26 (58 percent). Junior center Derrick Davenport kept the Frogs close with 13 points. Merriex and Davenport were two reserves that provided scoring punch when the starters faltered. The Frogs got 48 points from their reserves. The Spartans got 19. San Jose head coach Steve Barnes said his team lost some of the edge it played with in building a 19-point lead. "The whole thing with our team has always been aggressiveness," Barnes said. "If we are aggressive, then we're a good team. If we back off and are passive, close our eyes and hope a game is going to work out for us, then it doesn't." Merriex said Tubbs gave the Frogs a message at halftime. "He told us we weren't playing TCU basketball," Merriex said. "We got our mindset together that we were going to win this game."
Matt Stiver
By Rusty Simmons staff reporter Going into last weekend, the TCU baseball players complained that they had yet to put a complete game together. "There have been some games when we've pitched well or hit well or played good defense, but rarely at the same time," sophomore second baseman Erick Macha said. "When one of those things falls off, then everything falls apart." TCU (3-6) reached the goal of the complete game Friday in a win over the Iowa State Cyclones (3-3), but the Frogs reverted back to what has caused early-season woes as they lost the last two games of the weekend series, one to the Texas-Arlington Mavericks (5-3) and one to the Cyclones. Macha said the team looked like two different teams this weekend.
Frazier allowed three hits in six innings while striking out two batters. Ostentowski came on in relief of Frazier in the seventh inning, and he struck out three Cyclone hitters over the next three innings of hitless pitching. Frazier's six innings of shutout pitching led to his first win of the season and dropped his earned run average to 2.00. "It was just a matter of keeping the ball down and mixing in some off-speed pitches," Ostentowski said. "It helps when your team puts nine runs on the board. Then there is no pressure." The Frogs' offense did not wait around to see if Frazier and Ostentowski would complete the shutout. Instead, they scored six runs in the first three innings off of Iowa State's starting pitcher. Four of TCU's first six runs came in the first inning, including a two-run triple by senior designated hitter Mark Hamilton. Macha, playing for the first time since he was hit in the face with a ball on Thursday, hit a solo home run in the second inning. Hamilton, Macha and junior center fielder Marshall Wilson all had three hits for the Frogs. TCU committed one error in a game for the first time this season. The second game of the weekend pitted the Mavericks against the Frogs for the third time in four days. UTA forced TCU's starting pitcher Hamilton (0-3) from the game by scoring eight runs in four innings en route to a 12-4 win Friday. Hamilton exited in the fifth inning before he recorded an out, but his relief, red-shirt freshman Mike Srp, allowed four more runs in the inning as the Mavericks built a 12-2 lead. The Frogs tried to get back into the game, scoring in the seventh and eighth innings, but they got no closer as UTA's Aaron Pullin came on to close the game. Senior right fielder Tom Bates led the Frogs with two hits and three RBIs, including a two-run home run in the fourth inning. Bates leads the team with a .500 batting average. "He's on fire right now," Ostentowski said. "The ball must look real big to him. I hope he keeps it up because he's pretty much our only offense right now." In the weekend finale, Iowa State got revenge for the shutout in the opener. The Cyclones scored six runs in the opening three innings as they beat the Frogs 8-5 Saturday. After scoring three runs in the first inning, Iowa State allowed TCU to get back into the game as Bates and Price each drove in runs in their half of the inning. But the Cyclones pulled away, scoring three runs in the next two innings and knocking the Frogs' starting pitcher junior Stan Newton (1-0) out of the game. TCU's relievers, junior David Tombrella, senior Shaun Wooley and junior Chad Durham allowed only four runs in six and two-thirds innings. The Frogs scored single runs in the fifth, seventh and eighth innings but never closed the deficit to less than three runs. TCU made five errors in the game, and Macha said the defensive struggles make it tough to win games. "We had five errors and only six hits," he said. "The pitchers did their job, but we just didn't back them up." Freshman shortstop Ramon Moses was the only Frog to get multiple hits against the Cyclones. He had a pair of singles boosting his season average to .333. The Frogs play Texas Tech at 2:05 p.m. today at the TCU Diamond.
Rusty Simmons
By Danny Horne staff reporter It was a tale of two cities for the Lady Horned Frogs basketball players last week. They traveled to Hawaii Thursday to face the then second-place Rainbow Wahine and played in San Jose on Saturday against the last-place Spartans. The Wahine entered the contest having won six games in a row, while the Spartans came in having lost 13 straight. Both streaks remained intact at the end of play Saturday night. The Lady Frogs lost in Hawaii 72-56 and won in San Jose 66-51. The split moved the Lady Frogs' road record to 2-7 this season. The Lady Frogs never led in the game against Hawaii (16-5, 8-1 Western Athletic Conference) and trailed by double figures for much of the game. The Wahine put TCU in a hole early by jumping to an 18-4 advantage. The Lady Frogs cut the lead to three with three minutes remaining in the first half but would get no closer. "I was disappointed with how we started," head coach Jeff Mittie said. "Whenever you start with a 14-point deficit on the road, it is tough to come back." Hawaii took a 34-22 lead into halftime after sophomore guard Kate McMeekan-Ruscoe and senior guard Kyla Evers outscored TCU 9-0 over the final three minutes. McMeekan-Ruscoe tied a career high in scoring with 22 points. That total equals the career high she set at TCU in a 70-62 Hawaii victory earlier this season. "(McMeekan-Ruscoe) seems to like playing against us," Mittie said. "She really has not done that much consistently this season, but she has found a way against us. We let her get a lot of open looks at the basket, and she made us pay." Senior forward Raylene Howard had 14 points, and junior forward Kylie Galloway scored 11 for the Wahine. Both teams shot about the same for the game - TCU 37 percent and Hawaii 42 percent. One disparity was the free-throw attempts. TCU managed five points in six attempts, while the Wahine was 15 for 23 from the line. Junior guard Diamond Jackson (21 points) and junior guard Jill Sutton (11 points) were the only Lady Frogs in double figures. The San Jose game went differently for the Lady Frogs as they led throughout and by double digits for most of the second half. "I thought we played very well against (San Jose) overall," Mittie said. "We got a very good performance from our defense. (San Jose) never was able to get their offense going." Senior guard Natasha Johnson was the only Spartan in double figures with 13 points but hit on four of 12 shots. Jackson led the way for the Lady Frogs with 16 points. Her performance included four of nine shooting from three-point range and capped off a 37-point road trip. Junior forward Janice Thomas recorded her sixth double-double of the season with 10 points and 13 rebounds. Junior forward Sally Spencer came off the bench with 10 points. "We got some much-needed support off the bench," Mittie said. "We came into San Jose a little tired, so the help off the bench was important." The Spartans (2-19, 0-9 WAC) managed to make 27 percent of their shots and were out-rebounded 44-32. TCU (13-12, 4-6 WAC) made 48 percent of its shots, including 60 percent in the second half. The Lady Frogs are set to begin a three-game homestand starting Thursday against a Texas-El Paso (5-16, 4-6 WAC) team that has yet to win on the road this season (0-7).
Danny Horne |
Freshman guard Bingo Merriex (17 points,
5-9 three-point field goals) said the comeback was important for the team.
In the series opener, junior pitcher Chris Frazier (1-0)
and freshman reliever Chris Ostentowski combined to pitch the first shutout
of the season for the Frogs in a 9-0 win against the Cyclones at UTA's
Allan Saxe Stadium.| The TCU Daily Skiff © 1998, 1999 Credits |