Balanced attack leads TCU past road-weary West Virginia

Jameer Nelson Jr. led a trio of TCU players with 14 points each as the Horned Frogs ended a two-game losing skid with a 81-65 victory Monday over visiting West Virginia at Fort Worth, Texas.

Emanuel Miller and Trevian Tennyson also scored 14 points while JaKobe Coles added 11 for the Horned Frogs (17-7, 6-5 Big 12), who improved to 11-2 at home after losing their previous home game, 77-66 to Texas on Feb. 3. Micah Peavy had seven rebounds and five assists, while Nelson had a career-high four blocked shots.

TCU head coach Jamie Dixon won his 156th game with the program to tie Billy Tubbs for second in school history. Buster Brannon leads with 204 wins in 19 seasons with the Horned Frogs.

RaeQuan Battle scored 21 points and Quinn Slazinski added 15 for West Virginia (8-16, 3-8), which lost its third straight. Kerr Kriisa scored 13 points for the Mountaineers, who fell to 0-10 in road and neutral-site games.

West Virginia committed a season-high 19 turnovers and shot 30.0 percent in the second half. Kriisa (shoulder) and Noah Farrakhan (ankle) both departed with two minutes remaining with injuries on the same play.

After trailing by 12 at halftime, West Virginia cut its deficit to single digits three times before TCU effectively put the game away with a 10-1 run to take a 66-48 advantage with 10:35 remaining.

The Mountaineers went more than eight minutes without a field goal in the second half, seeing their deficit grow from nine points to 21 at 73-52 when Miller made a layup with 7:54 remaining.

West Virginia led 10-5 in the early going before TCU roared in front with a 9-0 run and a larger 14-2 stretch to take a 19-12 lead just past the midway point of the first half. The Horned Frogs grabbed a 47-35 lead at halftime after shooting 55.2 percent in the opening 20 minutes.

Nelson had 12 points in the first half for TCU, while Miller had 10. Battle had 15 points in the first half for West Virginia.

—Field Level Media