Vasean Allette scored 17 points, dished out nine assists and had seven rebounds to lead five TCU players scoring in double figures in a 89-78 Big 12 win over UCF on Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas.
Ernest Udeh Jr. had a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds. David Punch scored 14 points and had eight rebounds, Micah Robinson scored 12 points and Jace Posey chipped in 10 points in his first career start for TCU (16-13, 9-9 Big 12) which snapped a two-game losing streak.
Darius Johnson scored a game-high 20 points and Keyshawn Hall had 14 points and 13 rebounds. Mikey Williams had 11 points and Moustapha Thiam had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Knights (15-14, 6-12) who snapped their two-game winning streak.
TCU opened the game on a 7-0 run, capped by an Udeh Jr layup. Thiam got the Knights on the board with a layup on the other end, but Allete easily broke the UCF press and kicked off an 8-2 Horned Frogs’ rally. TCU led 15-4 at the 15:06 mark of the first half.
The Knights would heat up from beyond the arc with made 3-pointers on three straight possessions. Williams hit a pair of triples and Johnson drilled a trey as the Knight’s 9-2 run cut the TCU lead to 25-17 with 8:56 left in the first half.
TCU’s lead grew to 41-20 on Punch’s turnaround hook shot 5:20 before halftime. The Horned Frogs took a 49-30 advantage into the locker room. It was the highest scoring half in Big 12 play for TCU
The visitors pulled within 55-39 on a Nils Machowski layup at the 15:49 mark of the second half. A 9-0 UCF run featured Hall’s three-point play, and his offensive rebound and put back cut the TCU lead to 63-53 with 9:31 left.
A 6-0 run by Robinson featured a 3-pointer and an old-fashioned three-point play that pushed the TCU lead to 73-55 with 6:18 to play.
The Knights cut the TCU lead to single digits, 82-73, for the first time in the second half on Johnson’s scoop layup with 2:59 left, but UCF got no closer.
–Field Level Media
