No. 20 Texas basketball continues its dominance over TCU in 75-66 win

On the night of Feb. 23, first-year head coach Chris Beard and No. 20 ranked Texas basketball continued the dominance they’ve shown in two meetings now over head coach Jamie Dixon and the TCU Horned Frogs. Texas got to host TCU at the friendly confines of the Frank Erwin Center this time around.

That really looked to make the Longhorns heavy favorites over the Horned Frogs in one of the last games of the regular season. But you wouldn’t be able to tell otherwise that Beard and the Longhorns were heavy favorites over TCU out of the gates in this game.

Texas came out of the gates slow once again in a Big 12 game. By the time halftime arrived, the Longhorns were behind by five points in a slow start offensively. But a strong second-half effort on both ends of the floor helped to save Texas to come away with a nearly double-digit win over TCU.

A 45-31 edge over the Horned Frogs in the second half would give the Longhorns the win for good by the comfortable final score of 75-66. Texas got strong outings from the likes of senior forward Timmy Allen, senior guard Marcus Carr, and redshirt senior shooting guard/wing Andrew Jones.

Andrew Jones and Marcus Carr help push No. 20 Texas basketball past TCU on Feb. 23

Once again, Carr came up with a solid bounce-back game for the Longhorns in a win over TCU. Texas also saw Carr have a bounce-back game in their first meeting with TCU this season. Carr wasn’t astounding, but he was efficient for the Longhorns in their first win over TCU with a double-digit scoring night on 50 percent shooting from the field.

And after Carr came up with a tough game in the loss to the Texas Tech Red Raiders last weekend, he had a really nice outing in this Feb. 23 win over TCU. In this game, Carr scored 19 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the field, 0-of-3 from beyond the arc, and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line. He also gave Texas four rebounds, two assists, no steals, and one block.

While Carr was really good for Texas in this game, Jones was the real stud of the backcourt and/or wing rotations. He came up with a game-high 21 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the field, 0-of-4 from beyond the arc, and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line. He also gave Texas two rebounds, two assists, one steal, and no blocks.

To round out this recap of solid scoring nights for the Longhorns starters, we take a look at a quality outing from Allen. He gave the Longhorns 17 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field, with no attempts from beyond the arc, and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line (sidenote: this was truly the night for Texas to have their best go 7-of-8 from the charity stripe).

Allen also came up with seven rebounds, two assists, two steals, no blocks, and three turnovers.

Moreover, we can’t go talking about this game without mentioning the strong night down low from senior forward Christian Bishop. Texas got a whopping season-high five blocks from Bishop. As a team, Texas had six blocks on the night. This was a truly dominant effort down low for Bishop, who also tied for a game-high with seven rebounds.

All in all, Texas did a good job to re-emerge showing their tough two-way identity at home at the Erwin Center in this win over TCU. We just hope to see this from the Longhorns throughout the remaining schedule. Texas has three games left, two of which come against the Kansas Jayhawks and Baylor Bears.

Following this nine-point win over the Horned Frogs on Feb. 23 at the Erwin Center, they’re sitting with a record of 20-8 (9-6 Big 12). Next up for Carr, Allen and the Longhorns is a meeting with the West Virginia Mountaineers on the road on Feb. 26.