TCU men open NCAA Tournament with win over Ohio State

GREENVILLE, S.C. — TCU men’s basketball avoided a massive collapse in the NCAA Tournament as the No. 9 seed Horned Frogs defeated No. 8 seed Ohio State 66-64 in a first-round game Thursday.

“Really happy for our guys, they earned it. They earned it all year long,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “It’s been quite a journey for this team, it’s a young group. We responded, what a test of character.”

Junior center Xavier Edmonds scored the game-winning basket with 4.3 seconds remaining. Sophomore forward David Punch passed up a shot and tossed it into Edmonds, who battled through multiple Buckeyes to get the bucket in the post.

“It’s real crazy, I still haven’t processed it all the way,” Edmonds said of his game-winner. “It didn’t really hit me until I got to the locker room and checked my phone and everybody was hitting me.”

After leading by 15 at halftime, TCU (23-11) found itself needing to make a comeback. The Horned Frogs’ offense went ice cold in the second half, and the Buckeyes (21-13) took a 55-50 lead with 6:19 remaining.

Despite the adversity, TCU battled back to a take a 58-57 lead with 3:45 remaining after Punch blocked a dunk attempt by 7-footer Christoph Tilly and then finished on the other end with a layup.

After the Buckeyes took the lead back, Punch responded again with a spinning layup in the post while being fouled. He converted the three-point play to put TCU ahead 61-59.

After the Buckeyes tied it again, sophomore forward Micah Robinson knocked down a corner 3 to put TCU back in front, but senior guard Bruce Thornton, Ohio State’s leading scorer, hit his first field goal of the half with 34 seconds remaining to tie the game at 64.

The Horned Frogs gathered themselves and called a timeout to draw up the play for Edmonds right before the shot-clock buzzer.

Thornton got off one last shot from half-court, but wasn’t close to the rim.

“We wanted to get the last shot on the last play and you couldn’t have done any better,” Dixon said. “(Edmonds) shot it with 1.8 on the clock.. We work on it endlessly and it’s taken us forever to get it right, but we did it perfectly. We put them in a position where they never got it through half court. We guarded it about as well as we possibly could.”

TCU will face the winner of No. 1 overall seed Duke (32-2) and No. 16 seed Siena (23-11) in the second round Saturday at a time to be determined.

Here are three takeaways from the win:

Punch wakes up late

With TCU struggling to make a basket, Punch stepped up to carry the offensive load. After he sat with foul trouble in the first half, he came alive in the second. With TCU trailing 55-50, Punch converted a crucial three-point play as he went right at Tilly in the paint.

Punch also provided an impact defensively with multiple blocks, and he played tremendous defense when switched onto Ohio State guards like when he forced a timeout guarding Thornton on the perimeter. Punch scored 13 in the second half while grabbing seven rebounds and adding two assists, including on the game-winner to Edmonds.

“It’s hard for sure, but I believe in my team all the time,” Punch said. “I just tried to stay as active as I can on the bench, be as loud as I can because I know they’re gonna take care of the game out there without me. They want to win as much as I do.”

Punch finished with 16 points, 13 rebounds, two assists and three blocks.

Robinson and Edmonds’ March Madness debuts

The stage wasn’t too big for Robinson, as he delivered one of his best games as a Horned Frog. He showed a glimpse of the type of player he could develop into, as he scored in a variety of ways in the first half to lead TCU with 13 points.

Robinson got into the lane to hit nice floaters and knocked down three 3s in the first half. His most impressive move came when he pump-faked a defender, took one dribble and knocked down the 3 right before the shot clock expired. Robinson added another 3 with 1:27 remaining in the half to lift TCU to a 36-24 lead.

Edmonds was another Horned Frog who had a strong first half, as he scored 10 points and knocked down two 3s.

Like the rest of the team, both went cold in the second half, with Robinson missing his first four shots while Edmonds missed three of his first four — one of the many reasons Ohio State was able to climb back into the game. But when the game was in the balance, both players made clutch plays down the stretch to help TCU avoid the collapse.

Robinson finished with 18 points and four 3-pointers, while Edmonds finished with 16 points and eight rebounds.

“I feel good, there’s some things I can improve on,” Robinson said. “But you know it feels good to come up with the win and I’m just excited to prepare for Saturday.”

Slowing down Thornton

Earlier in the week, Dixon was in disbelief at how efficient Thornton was, as he entered Thursday averaging 20.2 points and shooting 56% from the field. It’s extremely rare for a guard to make over half his shots at the collegiate level, and the Horned Frogs knew slowing him down would be essential to pulling out a win.

TCU was successful in limiting Thornton in the first half as senior guard Jayden Pierre and junior guard Tanner Toolson did a great job as primary defenders on him. Thornton had just five points in the first and went over 12 minutes without a point as TCU took a 39-24 lead into halftime.

The Horned Frogs’ defense remained excellent on Thornton in the second half, but the problem was that John Mobley Jr. picked up all the scoring slack for him. The sophomore guard sparked the Buckeyes’ comeback with his outside touch and tough shot-making as he scored 10 of his 15 in the second half.

Ultimately, the Buckeyes couldn’t pull off the comeback without their leading scorer. Thornton was held to just 10 points on 3-of-9 shooting.

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