by John Antonik
TCU forced West Virginia into a season-high 19 turnovers in tonight’s 81-65 victory over the Mountaineers at Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
Those 19 turnovers resulted in 26 points, 18 of those coming on fastbreaks – a category TCU leads the country by averaging 20.2 points per game.
“(TCU plays) so physical that I knew turnovers were going to be their bread and butter going downhill after creating those turnovers,” West Virginia coach Josh Eilert said afterward. “When you turn it over 19 times, and they get 26 points off your turnovers there’s the game right there.”
This one got out of hand right around the time Jesse Edwards picked up his second flagrant 1 foul of the game when he got tangled up in the paint with TCU’s Ernest Udeh Jr., who was forced to leave the floor with blood on his lip.
Trevian Tennyson came into the game to make the two free throws and then on the ensuing possession, Jameer Nelson Jr. knocked down a jumper to push TCU’s lead to 18.
The Horned Frogs’ largest margin was 22 points, 77-55, with 5:02 left.
With two minutes remaining, the Mountaineers had two players injured on the same play. While Noah Farrakhan was turning his ankle trying to advance the basketball, Kerr Kriisa injured his shoulder attempting to retrieve the loose ball and out of it came Udeh’s slam dunk, which encapsulates West Virginia’s play of late.
TCU’s 81 points was spread around equally from the nine players who got on the floor – 14 each coming from Nelson Jr., Tennyson and Emanuel Miller. JaKobe Coles contributed 11 coming off the bench.
West Virginia’s late offensive flurry got its shooting up to 38.9% for the game, while second-chance points (15 to 4), bench points (24 to 5) and points in the paint (44 to 18) all favored TCU.
“We didn’t have it tonight in any way, shape or form,” Eilert said. “When the pressure gets turned up it really affects us and when the physicality gets turned up it really affects us.”
RaeQuan Battle led the Mountaineers with 21 points on 7-of-17 shooting. Quinn Slazinski contributed 15 on 6-of-11 shooting while Kriisa finished with 13 on 5-of-9 shooting before his late exit.
After the game, Eilert indicated Farrakhan’s injury might not be as serious as it appeared.
“After talking to the trainers, it doesn’t seem to be nearly as bad as it looked,” he said. “I was a little worried with Noah the way he went down, and Kerr has had shoulder injuries that he’s fought over the course of his career, but hopefully Noah’s is just a slight ankle issue that we can work through this week.”
Tonight’s loss drops West Virginia’s record to 8-16 and 3-8 in Big 12 play, while TCU improves to 17-7 and 6-5. WVU, which fell at Texas on Saturday, has lost three straight conference games for the first time this season.
“We’ve got to do some soul searching. We’ve got to figure out what we can do to match the physicality of this league and what we can correct,” Eilert said.
