TCU’s defense dominates in the second half of 67-51 win over Florida Gulf Coast

After starting the season with a massive blowout victory, TCU’s offense started slow but came alive late to lead the way in the team’s 67-51 win over the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles at Schollmaier Arena.

TCU’s defense dominated the game early, keeping the Eagles without a basket for the first three minutes. The Eagles took an early 12-3 lead before their own offensive miscues allowed the game to tighten up.

With TCU narrowly leading 47-46 with 7:02 left in the game, the Horned Frogs went on a 16-3 run punctuated by three-point shots from Micah Robinson, Vasean Allete and Brendan Wenzel in conjunction with a stifling defense. That gave the Horned Frogs a 63-49 lead they would not relinquish.

Allete led the Horned Frogs in scoring with 14 points on 5-of-14 shooting with four rebounds and two assists.

Forward Keeshawn Kellman was the high scorer of the game with 18 points off 9-of-11 shooting while adding nine rebounds and an assist and was the only consistent scorer for the Eagles.

Offense struggles

The Horned Frogs half-court offense couldn’t get into a rhythm early in the game. During the first half, the team had more turnovers (eight) than assists (seven) while shooting 41% from the field and 27% from three-point range.

TCU is typically one of the nation’s best transition offenses but had four points off the fastbreak, which put more stress on its half-court offense. That’s despite forcing 15 turnovers from the Eagles in the game.

The Horned Frogs finished the game with only one more assist (15) than turnovers (14).

Defensive dominance

The Eagles struggled to score outside of Kellman with the team shooting 11 of 39, not counting Kellman, the graduate transfer from Princeton.

No other Eagle shot better than 50% from the field and the team could not take care of the ball consistently in the second half.

After only four first-half turnovers, the Eagles more than doubled that total with nine in the second half as TCU’s defense swarmed forcing bad passes, and offensive fouls while getting turnovers on almost half (45%) of FGCU’s second-half possessions.

The Horned Frogs also did a great job of contesting shots without fouling: The Eagles ended up with nine free-throw attempts.

TCU plays next on Tuesday at 7 p.m. versus Texas State at Schollmaier Arena.