Old Dominion will be out to snap a three-game skid when it travels to Honolulu to face TCU on Thursday night in the opening round of the Diamond Head Classic.
The Monarchs (3-6) haven’t taken the court since Dec. 9, when they fell 84-69 to then-No. 18 James Madison. Chaunce Jenkins had 19 points for Old Dominion, which was outscored 50-30 before the break and never truly threatened in the second half.
“In that first half, we made way too many mistakes,” Monarchs coach Jeff Jones said after the loss. “It’s not a whole lot of solace, but we stuck together and we fought harder in the second half. I’d like to think that could be a starting point moving forward for our season. But that remains to be seen.”
Meanwhile, the Horned Frogs (8-1) are rolling, most recently cruising to a 79-59 drubbing of Arizona State on Saturday.
Like Old Dominion, TCU got off to a slow start and trailed 30-26 at intermission. But the Horned Frogs poured in 53 points over the final 20 minutes to steal the victory. Emanuel Miller finished with a team-high 18 points, while Micah Peavy recorded a 13-point, 12-rebound double-double.
“Good win for us,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “(It was a) slow start, but we outrebounded them by 13 in the second half and obviously that was the difference. We’ve got to put together 40 minutes. We haven’t done that yet, but that’s hard to do.”
The Horned Frogs boast a high-powered offense that ranks third in the Big 12 entering Wednesday in points per game at 87.4. That stems largely from TCU’s ability to limit giveaways, as the Horned Frogs currently have an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.7.
“The emphasis … was on our point-guard play, and trying to get better every day with them,” Dixon said, referring to Jameer Nelson Jr. and Avery Anderson III. “We got eight assists out of them, and four turnovers. We want (a) two-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio.”
ODU enters Thursday averaging 69.4 points per game, led by Jenkins (16.7 points per game) and Vasean Allette (14.7).
Miller is averaging 16.1 points to pace TCU, also leading the team on the glass with 5.7 rebounds per game. JaKobe Coles averages 13.1 points per game.
–Field Level Media