FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Desmond Bane scored 25 points with seven of TCU’s school-record 18 3-pointers, Kevin Samuel had 12 points with 12 rebounds and the Horned Frogs beat Louisiana-Lafayette 98-65 on Tuesday night.
The Horned Frogs (2-0), who had six players score in double figures, went ahead to stay with a 19-3 run before halftime when the Ragin’ Cajuns (2-1) had an extended shooting slump.
RJ Nembhard added a career-high 16 points for TCU, while PJ Fuller had 15, and Edric Dennis Jr. 14. Jaire Grayer, playing on his 23rd birthday, had 11 points and nine rebounds. Grayer and Dennis each made three 3-pointers.
Jalen Johnson led Louisiana with 21 points while Cedric Russell had 18 on four 3-pointers in the first half. Mylik Wilson had 16 points.
Louisiana had its largest lead at 27-21 when Russell hit a 3-pointer with 11:11 left in the first half. The Ragin’ Cajuns then missed nine of their next 10 shots and had five turnovers in span of 7½ minutes when TCU had four different players make 3-pointers.
Francisco Farabello, TCU’s freshman guard from Argentina, had the go-ahead 3 that made it 29-27 before Grayer made the first of his two 3s in that big spurt. By time Grayer hit his next 3 with 5:19 left, the Frogs had a 40-30 lead.
BIG PICTURE
Louisiana-Lafayette: The Ragin’ Cajuns missed a chance to improve to 3-0 for the first time since 1995-96. They score a lot of points — they averaged 90.5 the first two games and were the Sun Belt Conference’s top scoring team the past six seasons. They made 10 of their first 15 shots, five of those makes being 3-pointers, for 27 points in the first 9 minutes and were on pace for 108.
TCU: The Horned Frogs are 2-0 for the sixth season in a row, coach Jamie Dixon’s fourth at his alma mater. Dixon got his 398th win in 17 seasons. … Bane and Samuel are TCU’s only returning starters.
UP NEXT
Louisiana-Lafayette will be back at home to play Youngstown State on Friday night before playing five of their six games after that away from campus.
TCU continues a season-opening four-game homestand against Air Force next Monday night.
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