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Frogs
secure No. 4 seed As he walked from the Moody Coliseum floor Saturday, men’s head basketball coach Billy Tubbs reached into his pocket and slipped on a pair of glasses. Yellow-tinted, wrap-around safety glasses. Given the fact the Frogs just defeated Southern Methodist 84-76, Tubbs said he only exercised caution. Following a 92-79 victory at SMU on Jan. 11, 1999, Tubbs was pelted in the eye with a penny as he walked off the court. “They’re just taking care of me,” Tubbs said of the university trustees who supplied his eyewear. “The only thing is they weren’t prescription goggles. I couldn’t see where I was going.” Though no objects were thrown this time, the result was the same: a TCU victory. With the win and Texas-El Paso’s win Saturday against Hawaii, TCU secured the No. 4 seed in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament, which begins Wednesday in Tulsa, Okla. The Frogs will open tournament play at 6 p.m. Thursday against Hawaii. The victory moves Tubbs’ TCU record against SMU to 13-2.
“I knew it would be tough coming over here, but there was a feeling we could win,” Tubbs said. “We knew we had a good chance to win. When the other team thinks you have a great chance to win, that helps too.” Senior guard Ryan Carroll said the Frogs are peaking at the right time of year. “It’s still ‘Senior Week’ for us,” Carroll said. “I didn’t mean to spoil (SMU’s) senior night, but there are still things we want to get done.” After not scoring in the first half, Carroll came alive in the second, scoring 17 points and grabbing five rebounds. He scored TCU’s first eight points of the half, keying a 10-2 run that cut SMU’s lead to 42-40. The Frogs took their first lead, one they would not relinquish, when Carroll drained a three-pointer with nine minutes left. SMU coach Mike Dement said Carroll’s contributions were key. “(Carroll) did a great job,” Dement said. “We didn’t play defense nearly as well as we did in the first half.” When SMU’s Jeryl Sasser tipped in a loose ball to bring the Mustangs within 78-76 with 20 seconds left, Carroll sank two from the free-throw line following an intentional foul. The Frogs hit 21 of 23 free throws (91 percent) in the second half. Freshman guard Nucleus Smith made his last four to give the Frogs their margin of victory. In the first half, SMU’s senior duo of Sasser and Willie Davis took charge. Sasser scored 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds, and Davis keyed an SMU defense that held the Frogs to 29 percent shooting. Sophomore forward Bingo Merriex (17 points, 12 rebounds) said the Frogs turned their game around after halftime. “Coach Tubbs got hot at us at halftime,” Merriex said. “He said we needed to get rebounds, and I think that was the turning point for us.” TCU responded, shooting 48 percent from the floor and out rebounding the Mustangs 25-13 in the second half. Although Sasser brought SMU within 76-74 with 41.3 seconds left, TCU hit eight consecutive free throws to ice the game. “We practice free throws all the time, so it was no big thing,” Carroll said. “We look at those as free points.”
Matt Stiver |
