TCU
8-5
Texas
12-2
Frogs suffer 67-59 road setback to nationally-ranked Texas
1/2/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Horned Frogs dropped their second consecutive road game and fell to 8-5 on the 2007-08 campaign - including a 0-4 mark away from the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. The Longhorns snapped their two-game losing skid and improved to 12-2 on the season.
The Longhorns came into the game without one of their top scorers in A.J. Abrams - who averaged 18.8 points per game - but found all the scoring power needed in a pair of standouts in Damion James and D.J. Augustin as the UT duo combined for 49 points.
James recorded his seventh double-double in nine games following a 29-point, 14-rebound performance after connecting on 9-of-15 shooting, including 8-of-13 from the charity stripe. The UT forward also added a career-high five blocked shots to go along with two assists and two steals in 39 minutes of action.
The defensive pressure of the Purple and White forced Augustin to connect on only 4-of-10 field goal attempts, but the UT point guard made up for the lack of shooting at the charity stripe where he notched 10-of-12 attempts.
The Frogs were able to jump out quick on the Longhorns in large part to the shooting touch of TCU's leading scorer Henry Salter (Gulfport, Miss./Mississippi Gulf Coast College) - who connected on TCU's first three shots, including a pair of three-pointers to give the Purple and White an 8-4 lead at the 18:21 mark.
The Frogs held their biggest advantage of the game at seven points with a 16-9 advantage after junior Kevin Langford (Fort Worth, Texas/North Crowley H.S.) connected on a three-pointer with 14:40 remaining in the game. The Frogs connected on four three-pointers in the first six minutes of the game to take the seven-point advantage.
Salter connected on the next five points for the Frogs - including his third three-pointer of the game - as the Frogs held a five-point advantage at 21-16 with 11:01 remaining in the first half. The TCU junior finished with a team-high 19 points, including five treys, in 26 minutes of court time.
After Salter gave the Frogs the five-point lead, the shooting of the Purple and White went south as they failed to connect on a field goal until the 3:06 mark when Alvardo Parker (South Caicos, Turks & Caicos/Frank Phillips J.C.) connected on a jumper in the paint. Despite the lack of strong shooting over the eight-minute stretch, the Frogs only found themselves down by seven points at 31-24 with 3:39 left in the half.
A Keion Mitchem (Rochester, N.Y./Rochester East H.S.) three-pointer gave the Frogs a late 32-31 lead with 1:40 remaining before intermission, but the Longhorns were able to grab hold of the lead heading into halftime after a lay-in by Ian Mooney and a free throw by James.
In the second half, the Longhorns controlled the first part of the half and built their biggest lead at 10 points at 53-43 following a jumper on the baseline by James at the 10:16 mark. The Frogs continued to hang tough with the nationally-ranked Longhorns and cut the lead to three points at 59-56 following a pair of free throws by Jason Ebie (Houston, Texas/Alief Elsik H.S.) with 3:52 remaining in the game.
The Longhorns were able to regain a nine-point advantage at 65-56 following a pair of three-pointers and were able to escape the Erwin Center with a 67-59 home victory to start the New Year.
Langford recorded his 11th straight double-digit scoring performance as the Fort Worth talent added 11 points to go along with four rebounds, two assists and one blocked shot in 25 minutes of action.
Mitchem connected a trio of three-pointers to finish with nine points while Brent Hackett (Fort Worth, Texas/Southwest H.S.) collected eight points, three assists, two rebounds and one steal in 25 minutes of court time.
The Frogs connected on 32.8 percent (19-of-58) of their field goal attempts while the Longhorns finished with a shooting percentage of 44.7 (21-of-47). The Longhorns held advantages over the Purple and White in rebounds (40-31) and blocked shots (9-3) while the Frogs led the home squad in three-pointers (12-6), assists (11-10) and steals (9-6).
The Purple and White will open up Mountain West Conference action on Saturday (Jan. 5) when the Frogs travel to the West Coast for a contest against San Diego State beginning at 9:00 Central Time.
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