After dominating against Southern in a season-opening 108-75 win Monday, TCU heads into Thursday’s home duel with Omaha seeking similar success with a bit more of an emphasis on the defensive end.
The Horned Frogs are led by guard Micah Peavy, who scored a game-high 21 points against Southern.
“I liked what we did,” TCU head coach Jamie Dixon said after the win over Southern. “Our transition was tremendous. I thought we advanced (the ball) really well up the court.”
That led to 21 fast-break points and 58 points in the paint, along with 22 points off turnovers. All were encouraging for Dixon, but he remains intent on getting his team to a similar high point on the defensive end. Southern shot 44.6 percent from the field and tallied 11 second-chance points.
“I’m trying to explain to our guys that we need to get better defensively,” Dixon said. “I don’t think they realize how deficient we are defensively. We started our best five (defenders), and (Southern) was scoring from the beginning.”
TCU is Omaha’s first Division I opponent of the season, as the Mavericks rolled past NAIA Doane University 85-53 in Monday’s opener, led by 14 points from Nick Davis and 13 from Marquel Sutton.
“I think we want to play more physical this year,” junior forward Frankie Fidler said after the win. “Being more physical helps with rebounds and playing defense.”
Omaha won the rebounding margin 39-31 and limited Doane to a shooting percentage of just 34.8, including an 8 of 26 in the second half. The Mavericks stayed aggressive in the paint, with 52 of their 85 points coming from that area of the floor.
“We had a couple minutes there where we didn’t play well,” Omaha coach Chris Crutchfield said following the win. “That’s typical when you get up 25 points. But we picked it back up and got it going. Overall, great team win.”
–Field Level Media
