Frogs bounce back
TCU moves up two spots in the AP poll after defeating Fresno

By Stephen Hawkins
associated press

Senior tailback LaDainian Tomlinson ran for 231 yards and his 50th career touchdown and sophomore quarterback Casey Printers scored on a pair of short keepers as No. 16 TCU beat Fresno State 24-7 on Saturday.

A week after its dreams of an undefeated season and a Bowl Championship Series bowl ended in a loss at San Jose State, TCU (8-1, 5-1 Western Athletic Conference) beat Fresno and then accepted an invitation to play in the Mobile Alabama Bowl for the second straight year.

Fresno State (5-4, 4-2) led 7-0 when David Carr threw a 27-yard TD pass to Bernard Berrian with 2:40 left in the first quarter. But the Bulldogs didn’t score again.

Printers scored both of his touchdowns — from the 2- and 1-yard line — in the final 2:51 of the first half, and Tomlinson scored on a 65-yard run on the first possession after halftime.

Hillary Morgan/ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Senior wide receiver Cedric James makes a tackle on special teams during the Horned Frogs’ 24-7 win over Fresno State at Amon Carter Stadium. TCU moved its record to 8-1 on the season and remained outside the Bowl Championship Standings.

Tomlinson, the nation’s leading rusher with 1,680 yards, had his 11th straight game with more than 100 yards. That stretch began when he set an NCAA Division I-A record with 406 yards last season against Texas-El Paso, next week’s opponent and the surprise WAC leader.

Tomlinson’s longest run of the season came on a third-and-14 play. He took an inside handoff, fended off a tackler after bolting through an open gap and sprinted to the end zone, shaking Dante Marsh’s attempted ankle tackle at the 15.

That run, alone, was more than Tomlinson had last season against Fresno, which held him to 49 yards on 20 carries as the Bulldogs won 26-19 in overtime.

TCU won the inaugural Mobile Bowl last season, 28-14 over East Carolina. The Dec. 20 game will be the first bowl this year and match the Frogs against a second-place team from Conference USA, the league they are moving to next season.

Printers tied Saturday’s game at 7-all on a 2-yard keeper with 2:51 left in the first half, the touchdown capping an 11-play, 64-yard drive.

When Fresno got the ball back, its drive was kept alive by a pass interference call on third-and-15. But on the next play, senior strong safety Russell Gary stepped in front of the intended receiver and returned the interception 54 yards before being tackled by Carr at the 1.

Two plays later, Printers went into the end zone untouched as several defenders pursued Tomlinson instead.
With 4,785 yards, Tomlinson passed Marshall Faulk (4,589 yards at San Diego State) for second place on the WAC career rushing list. He is within 28 yards of former Colorado State standout Steve Bartalo’s 4,813 yards.

TCU couldn’t score on its first four drives, even though three of them ended in Fresno territory.
Frogs junior linebacker Chad Bayer recovered a fumble by Paris Gaines at the 26 on the second play of the game. Their fake field-goal attempt failed when junior holder Matt Schobel’s 5-yard shuffle pass to junior fullback George Layne came up a yard short of a first down.

Printers fumbled at the Fresno 33 on the second possession, and senior kicker Chris Kaylakie was wide right on a 36-yard field-goal attempt midway through the second quarter.

Kaylakie kicked a 46-yard field goal late in the third quarter for the other TCU points.

By Ram Luthra
skiff staff

The TCU cross country teams will have three runners representing the Frogs at the NCAA National Meet in Ames, Iowa Nov. 20.

Junior transfer Eliud Njubi, junior Glady’s Keitany and sophomore transfer Herbert Mwangi qualified for the national meet through their performances at the South Central Regional meet Saturday at the Eagle Point Golf Course in Denton.

The results of the meet signified the type of record-breaking season the cross country teams have achieved throughout the 2000 campaign.

Njubi clinched the first ever individual title by a TCU athlete in regional championship history. He captured the men’s title, finishing the 10,000-meter course in 30:49.19, 14 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor.
“Eliud made the race look easy,” cross country coach Dan Waters said. “He looked relaxed and easy the whole way. When a runner can run the way Eliud did today, that runner will win any race, regardless of the competition.”

Teammate Mwangi also earned a spot in the national meet with a seventh-place finish. He clocked in at 31:24.40. Mwangi ran the race while enduring the pain of nagging Achilles’ and hamstring injuries.

Waters said Njubi and Mwangi were running side by side at the No. 1 and 2 places at about the five-mile mark. But Mwangi slipped and was down by 20 seconds when he got up and finished the race.

“Herbert was running great until he slipped,” Waters said. “Even when he slipped and lost some ground, he finished the race in seventh place. That shows the toughness and tenacity of a winner.”

Waters, Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, said he was pleased with the way Justin Pillsbury and Justin Speer ran. He said they probably ran their best races of the season.

The men’s squad finished the meet in seventh place in the 17-team field, only three points behind sixth-place finisher Louisiana State.

“I was very happy with our performance,” Waters said. “To finish seventh, just three points from sixth, after not being ranked in the top 10 in the region, was a good meet for us. We did all we could do.”

The women’s team finished third in the team standings. They were paced by WAC Athlete of the Year Keitany. She earned a spot in the national meet by clinching a third place finish in the 6000-meter race in 20:39.52, only 23 seconds behind the winner.

“Glady’s ran her best race of the season,” Waters said. “She lost to the same two girls at the Arkansas Chili Pepper meet earlier in the year, but stayed with them longer this time.”

Junior Robin Schacht finished in 17th place in 21:34.48. Schacht was bothered by a stress fracture in her back. Waters said he admired Schacht’s ability to fight through the pain.

“(That’s) not bad for someone with a stress fracture in her back,” Waters said. “She did a fantastic job putting all the pain aside and competed very hard.”

Waters said he believed the women would be strong candidates to get an invitation to the national meet as one of the 13 at-large qualifiers, but the Frogs did not receive one of the at-large bids.

The women’s squad is ranked second in the weekly South Central Regional Coaches Cross Country Poll.
The South Central Region comprises all NCAA Division I schools in Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas (excluding Texas-El Paso and Texas Tech).

Ram Luthra
r.d.luthra@student.tcu.edu

By Danny Horne
sports editor

The TCU men’s basketball team closed out its exhibition schedule with a 111-92 win over Athlete’s First Friday night. TCU actually trailed 45-42 at halftime, and head men’s basketball coach Billy Tubbs said the relative closeness of the game was not entirely unexpected.

“We knew going into the game that this was probably the best team that we’ve played in these exhibition games,” Tubbs said. “We’re not going to play against a team that can shoot it from three-point range much better (than them) or shoot as many as them.”

Athlete’s First is made up of former college players, including former Western Athletic Conference players Chad Wilkerson of Tulsa and Stephen Woods of Southern Methodist, who both have had 30-point games against TCU while in college. For the game, Athlete’s First hit 19 of 43 shots from behind the three-point arc.

Wilkerson and Woods combined for 41 points, going 11 of 20 from three-point range.

TCU was led by senior center Derrick Davenport’s 25 points while senior guard Greedy Daniels scored 21 points. Daniels also added six assists and five steals.

Tubbs said he was particularly pleased with Daniels’ performance in the two exhibition games.
“I thought he did a good job in there,” Tubbs said. “He’s quick to say the least. He’s got a good idea where the ball’s coming from. He’s really a good player for our defensive scheme.”

TCU showed its depth, with no player logging more than 28 minutes of playing time. The Frogs had five players score in double figures.

“I’ve been thinking all along that we have good depth,” Tubbs said. “That makes everyone play better because our players know that if they take a breather (on the court), they’ll end up taking a breather on the bench. It really pushes everyone to play harder.”

The Horned Frog bench outscored its opponents’ bench 51-23. Besides Davenport and Daniels, also scoring in double figures was senior guard Ryan Carroll (17), junior center Marlon Dumont (11) and sophomore forward Bingo Merriex (14).

Tubbs said depth is going to be an important part of the team’s success.

“The team is really starting to buy into the fact that it’s critical how well you come off the bench,” Tubbs said. “They’re beginning to realize that I can’t start everyone; I can’t start 14 guys. This game was a good test for us, but the real deal is (less than a week away). Our guys will be ready to go.”

TCU starts the regular season at 7 p.m. Friday against Northwestern State at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.

Danny Horne
bravestcu3116@mindspring.com

By Kelly Morris
skiff staff

Even though the women’s basketball team won the final exhibition game of the season 84-59 against Spartak Moscow on Sunday, senior guard Jill Sutton said the Frogs’ 15 turnovers in the first 20 minutes of play made for a very sluggish first half.

“We started extremely slowly,” she said. “It’s really hard to have (that many turnovers) in a half and still pull out a win.”

Head coach Jeff Mittie said the Frogs’ slow start wasn’t entirely unexpected.

“We came out kind of sluggish, but we kind of knew we’d be tired coming in,” Mittie said. “To become a better basketball team, you have to learn to fight through that tiredness. We were fortunate that we were able to that (in this game).”

In the first eight minutes of play, TCU committed eight turnovers and trailed the Russians 17-9. For the game, the Lady Frogs had 25 turnovers and Spartak Moscow committed 35. All but two of the 24 players that played in the game committed at least one of the 60 total turnovers.

Mittie said his team wasn’t prepared to face the kind of height the Russians presented.

“If they could’ve mixed in some better guard play with the size they had, that game would’ve come down to the wire, especially with how we were shooting the ball,” Mittie said. “We decided at halftime that we needed to get points from our defense and that we needed to get to the foul line more.”

TCU picked up the pace defensively in the second half with an aggressive full-court press that seemed to disrupt the Russian squad.

After the Frogs shot just 32.4 percent during the first half, they scored the first 16 points of the second half to take a 53-34 lead.

“We just sped up the game and that wore them down,” Mittie said. “We wanted to negate their size with our speed. They struggled a lot with our trap, but we haven’t actually gotten that completely into our system.”

Sutton led the team in scoring with 18 points, and senior forward Janice Thomas and junior forward Kati Safaritova each notched 12 points. Sophomore center Kim Walter and senior center Karen Clayton led the Frogs with nine rebounds.

Sutton said the team still has plenty to work on in the two weeks before the season opener against Yale.

“The first half, well, the whole game showed that we really have a lot of room to grow,” she said.

Mittie said the team would use the next week to implement the rest of their plays.

“I want to have everything else in by the end of this week,” he said. “That gives us another week to sharpen it up and get it ready for the first game against Yale.”

The Frogs season-opener is at 7 p.m. Nov. 24 against Yale at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.

Kelly Morris
k.l.morris@student.tcu.edu

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