FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Desmond Bane scored 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting, including the go-ahead 3-pointer, to lead five players in double figures for No. 21 TCU in a 77-69 win over Fresno State on Thursday night.
Alex Robinson had 13 points and 14 assists for TCU, and Kevin Samuel also had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. JD Miller also scored 14 for the Frogs, while RJ Nembhard had 11.
Bane’s tiebreaking 3 about 2 minutes after halftime put the Horned Frogs (3-0) ahead to stay. The junior guard had a breakaway dunk and followed with a fastbreak layup in a later 11-3 run that stretched their lead to 11.
Braxton Huggins had 18 points and New Williams 17 for Fresno State (1-1). Deshon Taylor scored 13.
Nembhard’s 3-pointer put TCU up 29-25 with just under 2 minutes left in the first half before the Bulldogs scored the final six points for a 31-29 lead on Huggins’ jumper before the buzzer.
Robinson and Bane scored all of the points in a 10-0 TCU run after Fresno scored the game’s opening basket. The Bulldogs got even at 10-all on consecutive 3s by Williams and Huggins, but didn’t have its first lead until Christian Gray’s layup made it 23-22 with 3:17 to go in the first half.
BIG PICTURE
Fresno St.: The Bulldogs haven’t won a non-conference game against a Top 25 team since winning 43-42 at Oregon State on Dec. 7, 1982. … They haven’t beaten an AP Top 25 team since a 58-52 win over No. 14 Oklahoma State on Feb. 10, 2002 when Jerry Tarkanian was their coach.
TCU: The Frogs have won 18 consecutive November games, and are off to a 3-0 start just like they were in Dixon’s first two seasons.
PAST FOES
TCU and Fresno State were in the WAC together from 1997-2001. They had last met two seasons ago in Fort Worth, in the NIT opener in March 2017, when the Frogs won 66-59 to start their NIT championship run.
UP NEXT
Fresno State is back in California for Thanksgiving, playing Northwestern that day to start the Wooden Legacy tournament. They will play three games in four days in Fullerton before going home for a seven-day homestand that will be the team’s longest since 1954-55.
TCU plays the fourth of six consecutive home games to start the season when it hosts Lipscomb on Tuesday night.
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