Colorado State University Athletics
Colorado State
TCU
Rams Stumble Against Horned Frogs
1/21/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 21, 2006
On paper, it appeared that Colorado State could break an 18-game Mountain West road losing streak against the 4-14 TCU Horned Frogs Saturday night. Instead, the Rams will return home with their fourth conference loss of the year and 19-straight league losses on the road following an 85-72 loss to the Frogs in Fort Worth.
CSU opened the game with a three-pointer by Sean Morris but it would be the only points that the Rams could accumulate in the first 4:42 of the game while TCU opened up a 7-3 lead at the 15:52 mark of the opening period. CSU rallied its offense, however, taking a 23-19 lead on a Stephan Gilling three-pointer with 9:37 to go in the first.
The homestanding Horned Frogs then put together a 12-0 run in the next 5:45 to regain a 31-23 advantage that would later translate to an eight-point, 39-31, lead at the half.
TCU (5-14, 1-4 MWC) came out strong in the second half as well increasing its lead to 17 points, 61-44, on a Nile Murry three with 10:59 to play. But CSU closed the gap to six points on the third three-pointer in just over two minutes by redshirt freshman Ryan Brown to make the score 61-55 at the 8:10 mark.
CSU stayed within six points at the 4:16 mark but hit just 1-of-8 field goals from that point on and TCU made the most of its offensive oppontunities to extend its final advantage to 85-72.
CSU hit just 25-of-64 (39 percent) from the floor including 7-of-26 (27 percent) from three-point range while TCU was 25-of-59 (42 percent) on the night and 9-of-26 (35 percent) from long distance. TCU got to the free throw line 36 times, hitting 26 while CSU was only able to draw 17 charity shots while knocking down 15 (88 percent).
Jason Smith led the Rams in scoring with 16 points on 5-of-11 shooting and 6-of-6 from the free throw line. Michael Harrison came off the bench to hit for 14 on 6-of-9 shooting. Harrison also tied for team honors with six rebounds along with Micheal Morris and Stuart Creason. Morris claimed a team-high seven assists and Stephan Gilling rounded out three players in double figures with 11 points in the game.
The Horned Frogs were led by Murry who had 24 points including 11-of-12 free throws. Brent Hackett and Chudi Chinweze had 15 and 14 in the game, respectively.
Colorado State (12-6, 1-4 MWC) returns home to host Wyoming Wednesday night in Moby Arena. Tipoff is slated for 7:05 p.m.
