RJ Nembhard had 21 points and hit the go-ahead jumper with :08 seconds left in the game, as visiting TCU closed on a 9-0 run to hand Oklahoma State its first loss of the season with a 77-76 win in Big 12 action on Wednesday night in Stillwater, Okla.
Kevin Samuel had 18 points and Mike Miles scored 16 for the Horned Frogs (6-2, 1-1 Big 12), who trailed 76-68 with 2:06 left in the contest, but chipped away to pull out the road win. Nembhard, who knocked down that jumper from the right portion of the free-throw line with his team down 76-75, had five points during that final run. Samuel scored four during the spurt as the Horned Frogs overcame 13 second-half turnovers and shot 54.5 percent for the contest.
Oklahoma State star freshman Cade Cunningham scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half, and added eight rebounds, but missed a long shot from the corner as time expired. The Cowboys (6-1, 0-1), who had won 10 straight dating to last season, shot 41.8 percent on the night, but went 12-of-20 from the free-throw line in the second half.
Cunningham had just two points in the first half, where he went 1-of-9 from the field and struggled to get into an offensive rhythm. Oklahoma State shot 38.2 percent and was 1-of-7 from beyond the arc to trail 37-32 after the first 20 minutes.
The Horned Frogs pushed that advantage to eight points early in the second. But the Cowboys used a 10-2 run to tie the game at 44-44 on a Cunningham dunk with 15:03 to play. Back-to-back 3s from Ferron Flavors highlighted that spurt.
Cunningham gave the Cowboys a 45-44 lead with a free throw at the 14:06 mark and that advantage went up to 48-44 -- as part of an 8-0 run. The Horned Frogs, though, used an 8-2 stretch to take a 52-50 lead with just over 11 minutes left.
However, an 8-0 run by Oklahoma State put the hosts on top and in position to close things out before TCU rallied.
TCU shot almost 47 percent in the first half and overcame an early 7-0 Oklahoma State run that led to a 10-5 deficit for the visitors. However, the Horned Frogs kicked their games into high gear as TCU used a 15-6 run, capped by a Nembhard alley-oop dunk, to take a 20-16 lead.
The Horned Frogs went on a 14-3 spurt to lead by nine and pushed that edge to 35-22 with 2:34 left in the first half before a Rondel Walker basket ended Oklahoma State's 6 1/2-minute scoring drought. The Cowboys closed the half on a 10-2 run -- without any help from Cunningham -- to trail by five at the break.
--Field Level Media
Texas Christian | Oklahoma State | |
RJ Nembhard 21 | Scoring | Cade Cunningham 17 |
RJ Nembhard 4 | Assists | Isaac Likekele 6 |
Kevin Samuel 8 | Rebounds | Isaac Likekele 9 |
Mike Miles 5 | Free Throws Made | Cade Cunningham 5 |
Charles O'Bannon Jr. 3 | Steals | Avery Anderson III 3 |
Kevin Samuel 7 | Blocks | Cade Cunningham 2 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Texas Christian | 77 | 54.5 | 8-17 | 9-15 | 10 | 32 | 9 | 5 | 20 |
Oklahoma State | 76 | 41.8 | 3-17 | 17-26 | 13 | 34 | 2 | 11 | 13 |