TCU gets first Big 12 win, 62-55 over No. 5 Kansas

Associated Press

FORT WORTH, Texas — TCU made its first Big 12 victory a memorable one, and left the fifth-ranked Kansas Jayhawks with their first losing streak in more than seven years.

The Horned Frogs finally won in their new conference, leading throughout against the Big 12’s most dominant team in a 62-55 victory Wednesday night. It was their first-ever win over a Top 5 team.

“It means a lot. Obviously we’ve had some tough years,” Frogs senior forward Garlon Green said. “We’ve had a tough year right now, but this is a big win. We need to carry this momentum.”

Green scored 20 points for the Horned Frogs, including five in a row after a late 17-4 spurt by Kansas (19-3, 7-2 Big 12).

Naadir Tharpe scored nine points in a 2-minute span, with a 3-pointer and six consecutive free throws, before a dunk by Jeff Withey with 6:49 left got the Jayhawks within 44-40 — the closest they got since TCU scored the game’s first eight points.

After Tharpe missed a 3-pointer on a break, Adrick McKinney slung a pass inside to Green for layup. Kansas guard Ben McLemore, the Big 12’s top freshman scorer, missed an open 3-pointer before Green had a three-point play to stretch the lead back to 49-40 for TCU (10-12, 1-8).

“I said this from day one, we need to focus on what’s in the locker room,” said first-year coach Trent Johnson, whose team has already had three season-ending injuries. “You’re never as bad as people say you are.”

On this night, they were good enough to beat the team that has won or shared 12 of the league’s 16 titles.

The Jayhawks, coming off a loss four days earlier against Oklahoma State, had played 264 games in a row since January 2006 without consecutive losses, the longest active streak in NCAA Division I.

Against TCU, the Jayhawks looked nothing like the Big 12’s best team.

“It was the worst team that Kansas ever put on the floor, since Dr. Naismith was there,” coach Bill Self said. “I think he had some bad teams when he lost to Topeka YMCA and things like that in the first couple years. But for the first half, there hasn’t been a team play worse than that offensively.”

Kansas already had six turnovers and missed its first four shots before finally scoring 7:17 into the game, on Ben McLemore’s bounce pass to Jamari Traylor for a layup that made it 8-2.

The Jayhawks didn’t get closer before halftime, when they trailed 22-13. Even after scoring seven points in a row over a 2-minute span — one point more than they scored the rest of the half.

“We knew going in that we would have to play extremely well, offensively, defensively, extremely hard, and they were going to have to help us out,” Johnson said. “When I said help us, obviously they missed a lot of shots they probably would make.”

Kansas shot a season-low 30 percent from the field (18 of 61) and had its lowest-scoring game since also scoring 55 in an NCAA tournament loss to UCLA on March 24, 2007.

TCU kept the Jayhawks in the game making only 5-of-12 free throws in a nearly 2-minute span before Elijah Johnson’s 3-pointer got Kansas within 56-50 with just under a minute left. Johnson added another one from long range with 34 seconds left but that wasn’t enough.

Nate Butler Lind had 10 points for TCU. Connell Crossland had eight points and 15 rebounds.

McLemore led Kansas with 15 points, while Withey had 12 points and Tharpe 11.

There was a record sellout crowd of 7,412 fans in the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum, a large portion of them loud Jayhawks fans cheering on their team coming off the 85-80 loss Saturday that ended their nation’s-best 18-game winning streak and a 33-game winning streak at Allen Fieldhouse.

But when this game ended, they were filing out of the arena while TCU students stormed the court to celebrate the Frogs’ first-ever win over a Top 5 team in 21 tries.

Green’s 3-pointer made it 20-6 before the only Kansas spurt of the first half that could have been more if not for missed free throws.

McLemore made two free throws, and after Green missed another shot from long range, Kevin Young made a layup before Withey blocked a shot. But the Jayhawks then went to the free throw line on three consecutive possessions — Young twice, and Travis Releford once — and made only one of two freebies each time while getting within 20-13.

No. 7 ARIZONA 73, STANFORD 66

TUCSON, Ariz. — Mark Lyodns scored a season-high 25 points and led a key stretch in the second half, helping No. 7 Arizona hold off Stanford on the 40th anniversary of the first game at the McKale Center.

Playing in front of color-coordinated home crowd, Arizona (20-2, 9-2 Pac-12) came out flat and needed most of the first half to catch the Cardinal. The Wildcats stayed close in a back-and-forth second half until Lyons took over, leading them to their seventh straight win over Stanford.

Solomon Hill added 23 points and Angelo Chol gave Arizona a lift with Grant Jerrett out, grabbing eight rebounds.

Stanford (14-9, 5-5) dominated Arizona early and kept up with the Wildcats before fading under Arizona’s defensive pressure in the closing minutes.

Dwight Powell scored 18 of his 24 points in the second half and had 10 rebounds. Aaron Bright added 16 points for the Cardinal.

No. 11 LOUISVILLE 68, RUTGERS 48

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Wayne Blackshear scored a career-high 19 points and hit a 3-pointer to ignite a 23-2 run early in the second half that carried Louisville to a victory over Rutgers.

Russ Smith added 14 points and six rebounds and fellow guard Peyton Siva had nine points and seven assists as the Cardinals (19-4, 7-3 Big East) won its third straight game by holding Rutgers to a season-low point total.

It was the seventh time they have held an opponent under 50 points this season.

Gorgui Deng added eight rebounds and six blocked shots as Louisville beat Rutgers for the seventh straight time and 11th in 12 meetings.

Eli Carter had 13 points and Myles Mack 12 to lead Rutgers (12-9, 3-7). The Scarlet Knights have lost five in a row and six of seven.

No. 12 MICHIGAN STATE 61, No. 18 MINNESOTA 50

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Gary Harris scored 15 points and Keith Appling added 14 points before leaving the game with an injury to help Michigan State bounce back from a poor first half to beat Minnesota.

Appling left the court with 1:17 left, holding his right shoulder after getting tied up with Joe Coleman. He returned to the bench in the final minute.

The Spartans (19-4 8-2 Big Ten) moved into a second-place tie with No. 3 Michigan, whom they host Tuesday night. They picked up their eighth win in nine games since losing the conference opener against the Golden Gophers (17-6, 5-5) on the road.

No. 14 BUTLER 77, ST. BONAVENTURE 58

INDIANAPOLIS — Rotnei Clarke scored 17 points and Butler defeated St. Bonaventure.

Andrew Smith added 13 points and Khyle Marshall and Chase Stigall each scored 12 as the Bulldogs (19-4, 6-2 Atlantic 10) improved to 12-0 at home this season.

The victory pushed Butler into a share of the Atlantic 10 lead with idle VCU (6-2). Charlotte and St. Louis also entered the night with 5-2 conference records.

St. Bonaventure fell to 9-58 all-time against ranked teams, including a 0-29 record on the road.

Demitrius Conger led the Bonnies (10-11, 3-5) with 18 points. Chris Johnson and Marquise Simmons added nine points each for St. Bonaventure.

No. 15 NEW MEXICO 81, AIR FORCE 58

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Jamal Fenton scored all five of his points in a late surge for New Mexico to help the Lobos beat Air Force.

With New Mexico (20-3, 7-1 Mountain West) leading 57-51, Fenton started a 14-1 run with a time-clock beating, turnaround floater from the lane.

All five Lobos’ starters finished in double figures, with Tony Snell, Cameron Bairstow and Alex Kirk all scoring 14 points.

Bairstow added nine rebounds and Kirk had eight to help the Lobos control the boards with a 39-24 advantage, including 13-4 on the offensive side.

Those two players also helped New Mexico to a 30-16 scoring edge in the paint and a 14-2 edge on second-chance points.

Mike Fitzgerald and Michael Lyons each scored 16 points for the Falcons (14-7, 5-3).

Air Force used a 9-3 run, capped by a 3-pointer from Kyle Green with 9:15 remaining before New Mexico took off on its big run.

INDIANA STATE 76, No. 16 CREIGHTON 57

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Jake Odum scored 22 points, topping the 1,000-point mark for his career and leading Indiana State past Creighton.

It was a huge night for the Sycamores (15-8, 8-4 Missouri Valley Conference), who earned the 1,400th win in school history and beat a ranked team at home for the first time since December 2006.

For Creighton (20-4, 9-3), it was a dismal night. Doug McDermott finished with just eight points, all in the first half, and the nation’s top shooting team was held to just 41.7 percent from the field as its three-game winning streak ended.

Indiana State took control late in the first half using runs of 12-2 and 7-2 to build a 35-24 halftime lead. It blew open the game with a 13-3 run to start the second half, which made it 48-27.

Creighton couldn’t get closer than 17 the rest of the way.

PROVIDENCE 54, No. 17 CINCINNATI 50

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Kadeem Batts scored 25 points and Providence narrowly won its second straight game after holding a late lead, beating Cincinnati.

The Bearcats had cut their biggest deficit, 47-34 with 6:49 left, to 49-48 on two free throws by Cheikh Mbodj with 2:28 remaining. It was 52-50 when Batts missed two free throws with 13.4 seconds to go and Justin Jackson rebounded for Cincinnati. But Sean Kilpatrick, who led Cincinnati with 13 points, lost the ball on a backcourt violation with 2 seconds to play and Batts finished the scoring with two free throws.

On Saturday, Providence (12-11, 4-7 Big East) beat Villanova 55-52 on a 3-pointer by Bryce Cotton after blowing a nine-point lead with 4:34 left.

Cincinnati (18-5, 6-4) lost for the second time in seven games.

No. 22 OKLAHOMA STATE 69, BAYLOR 67

STILLWATER, Okla. — Michael Cobbins blocked a shot then Markel Brown converted a fast-break layup with two-tenths of a second left in overtime, lifting Oklahoma State over Baylor.

Marcus Smart scored 14 points and Brown added 13 for Oklahoma State (16-5, 6-3 Big 12 Conference), which blew a 14-point lead in the final 7:40 of regulation and twice trailed by three points in overtime before extending its winning streak to four games.

Baylor (14-8, 5-4) had a chance to win in the final seconds of overtime, but Cobbins blocked a shot attempt by A.J. Walton under the basket, then raced to the other end and made the winning layup. Brown intercepted a desperation inbound pass by Baylor’s Jacob Neubert to end the game.

No. 24 MARQUETTE 70, SOUTH FLORIDA 47

TAMPA, Fla. — Todd Mayo and Vander Blue both scored 13 points to help Marquette beat South Florida.

Mayo had all of his season-high 13 points in the first half as Marquette (16-5, 7-2 Big East) grabbed a 39-16 halftime lead.

The sophomore guard has appeared in 10 games coming off the bench this season after being academically ineligible.

Junior Cadougan added 11 points for Marquette, which was coming off a 70-51 loss to then No. 12 Louisville last Sunday.

South Florida (10-12, 1-9) got 14 points from Zach LeDay. The Bulls have lost five in a row.

Marquette has dominated the all-time series, winning 19 of 22 games against the Bulls. The Golden Eagles won the other meeting between the teams this season, 63-50 on Jan, 28, behind 30 points by Blue.

Cadougan opened the scoring with a 4-point play, part of an early 13-3 run by the Golden Eagles.