Texas Christian University trades leads with Kansas as free throws tilt the night at T-Mobile Center

Texas Christian University entered the Big 12 quarterfinal listed at 73-78 against the Kansas Jayhawks at a neutral site, and the Jayhawks came in ranked 14 with a 78-73 finish. The game tipped at 9:52 PM EDT at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, and it featured 10 ties and 12 lead changes on ESPN2 with 17,015 in attendance.

First half

The Horned Frogs put up 34 in the first half while the Jayhawks scored 31 in the opening half to set a 3-point margin at the break. TCU shot 39 percent from the field in the game and reached 9 made 3-pointers on 36 percent shooting from deep as part of 64 attempts overall. Kansas shot 38 percent from the field in the game and went 4-for-17 from 3-point range for 24 percent while staying close on 30 made free throws.

Second half

The Frogs scored 39 after halftime, and Kansas answered with 47 in the second half to swing the quarterfinal. TCU committed 14 turnovers and produced 9 points off turnovers, while the Jayhawks turned 10 giveaways into 16 points off turnovers. The Horned Frogs recorded 10 assists against 14 turnovers, and Kansas posted 8 assists with an 0.89 assist-to-turnover ratio compared with TCU’s 0.77 mark.

Key swings

TCU built a biggest lead of 7 and generated 21 bench points, and Kansas countered with a biggest lead of 9 and 13 bench points. The Horned Frogs won 10 offensive rebounds toward 10 second-chance points, and the Jayhawks answered with 9 offensive rebounds and 14 second-chance points. TCU added 4 blocks and 4 steals, while Kansas produced 5 blocks and 8 steals to fuel 19 fast-break points compared with 7 for TCU.

Numbers that decided it

The Horned Frogs finished with 40 rebounds and 28 points in the paint, while Kansas totaled 41 rebounds and 34 points in the paint on 53 percent finishing on paint attempts. TCU went 14-for-18 at the line for 78 percent, and Kansas went 30-for-37 for 81 percent while also drawing 23 fouls against 23 total team fouls by TCU. The TCU Horned Frogs post-match stats also show 46 effective field goal percent for TCU compared with 41 for Kansas.

Player spotlight and wrap

From the previous game sample, David Punch’s 24 points and 10 rebounds and Liutauras Lelevicius’ 14 points and 8 rebounds set recent production context for the Frogs, while Jayden Pierre added 11 points and Brock Harding had 3 assists in that outing. The Horned Frogs coach post-game reaction centered on a margin shaped by 37 Kansas free throw attempts, and post-game thoughts TCU Horned Frogs also pointed to 13 Kansas personal fouls compared with 23 by TCU. What went wrong for TCU Horned Frogs showed up in the combination of 8 Kansas steals and the Jayhawks’ 11 made shots at the rim on 69 percent, and the next viewing window will be on the broadcast slate that carried this one nationally.

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