Ja’Monta Black scored 25 points and Demarcus Sharp added 19, including the go-ahead basket with 1:14 to go, to help visiting Northwestern State upset No. 15 TCU 64-63 on Monday night at Fort Worth, Texas.
Chuck O’Bannon’s 12 points led the Big 12’s Horned Frogs (2-1), who sank just 2 of 21 shots from 3-point range. Micah Peavy added 10 points and Eddie Lampkin had 11 rebounds.
Isaac Haney contributed 7 points and 10 rebounds for the Southland Conference’s Demons (2-2).
TCU played without leading scorer Mike Miles, who missed the game due to an undisclosed injury, and Damion Baugh, who’s serving a six-game suspension imposed by the NCAA for signing with an NBA certified agent after last season.
Sharp’s foul-line jumper gave Northwestern State a 64-63 edge with 1:14 left.
O’Bannon then missed a jumper, before teammate JaKobe Coles put up an errant layup try. Haney grabbed the defensive rebound.
The Horned Frogs got the ball back with 6.6 seconds on the clock, but O’Bannon missed a 3-point attempt as the final buzzer sounded.
With Northwestern State trailing 59-56 and possessing the ball, Sharp was stripped by Shahada Wells, who proceeded to sink a fastbreak layup that put ahead TCU by 5 points with 4:44 remaining.
Following a timeout, Sharp’s jumper in the lane and Black’s 3-pointer tied the score at 61 with 3:33 to go.
O’Bannon sank TCU’s first 3-pointer, at 17:03 of the second half, to start an 8-0 run that built a 42-33 cushion. The Horned Frogs had missed their first 11 shots from 3-point territory.
TCU led 31-29 at halftime despite shooting 31 percent overall (9 of 29) and missing all 9 shots from behind the arc.
Northwestern State wasn’t much better from outside, shooting 34 percent (12 of 35) overall and 3 of 11 from 3-point range.
The Horned Frogs had big first half advantages in rebounding (27-19), second-chance points (10-4) and bench points (16-4). TCU also was 13 of 19 from the foul line, and Northwestern was 2 of 4.
Neither team went ahead by much, with TCU’s largest first-half lead being 5 points (15-10) and Northwestern State’s being 3 points (3-0; 21-18).
The Horned Frogs had won all six previous meetings.
–Field Level Media