No. 8 TCU needed nearly three quarters before taking over Wednesday night in its 72-48 victory over BYU at the Marriott Center.
The Horned Frogs hit their stride two-thirds of the way through the third frame, ultimately outscoring the Cougars by 18 points in the second half en route to another comfortable win.
“I thought the second half we were tremendous defensively,” TCU head coach Mark Campbell said. “Defensively, I think we imposed our will in the second half.
“We just started doing the stuff you got to do to win. You got to take care of the ball, you got to crash the glass, and we did all those things.”
TCU felt like it took time to shake off some rust after both teams hadn’t played in over a week (both last hit the hardwood on December 20 when they each picked up blowout victories in their respective Big 12 openers).
“We’ve had a long break, 11 days since the last time we played,” Campbell said. “You just got to get them back into basketball shape again. … You just kind of try to get them back in the flow.”
The Horned Frogs got in the flow of things with a 9-0 run at the end of the third quarter, which pushed their lead to 12. The visitors only added to their advantage from there, propelled by superstar senior guard Olivia Miles, who ended the game with her fourth triple-double in TCU’s last five contests.
“Honestly, I wasn’t feeling great this game,” Miles said. “(But) once I see and feel the flow of it … I just start working towards (a triple-double). … But when I do work towards it, it also helps my team and that’s what I am most proud of.”
TCU entered Wednesday’s matchup with a perfect 13-0 record to BYU’s 12-1 mark. The Horned Frogs came to Provo boasting one of the best margins of victory in the country, outscoring opponents by an average of more than 38 points per game and having won every one of their contests by double digits.
Despite ultimately losing by 24, BYU kept things close until TCU’s late-game outburst quickly shifted the entire feel of the game.
“(It) could have gone one of two ways, and for us we didn’t make it go the other way,” Cougars head coach Lee Cummard said. “We kind of let them dictate a little bit more.
“We didn’t have a great shooting night. I thought the ball started getting a little sticky at that point for us; we’re taking hard, tough, quick shots.”
BYU ended up scoring just eight points and shooting an abysmal 17.6% from the field in the fourth quarter. The team’s offensive struggles can be attributed to TCU’s stifling defense that leads the country in giving up the fewest points per game.
The defeat keeps the Cougars winless against the Horned Frogs since joining the Big 12, as they fell to 0-4 in that span.
Wednesday marked the lone scheduled matchup of the season between the two sides.
It also marked just the second time BYU has given up 70 points this season, the other occurrence coming in the Cougars’ only other setback — against now-12th-ranked Vanderbilt on Nov. 29.
The loss keeps BYU from earning what would have been its highest ranked victory in program history.
The Cougars will get another shot at an unbeaten conference foe Saturday, as they will remain in Provo for a matchup against Arizona State.
The Sun Devils beat Utah by a point in a thriller on Wednesday to remain undefeated on the season.
Saturday’s game is scheduled to tip off at 2:00 p.m. Mountain Time.