Brock Harding hit a putback jumper and a pair of free throws in the final 38 seconds to back up David Punch’s 17 points as TCU came from behind to beat determined Incarnate Word 69-65 on Monday in Fort Worth, Texas.
Incarnate Word led by six points at halftime and held onto that margin through the first 10 minutes of the second half as it worked for the upset. The Horned Frogs (7-3) rallied to the front on Punch’s second-chance jumper with 5:40 left and led by three before the Cardinals’ Davion Bailey poured in his ninth 3-pointer of the game to tie the game at 65-65 with 1:11 remaining.
Harding then followed up his miss with a jumper to put TCU up by a bucket with 38 seconds to play. A turnover of the Cardinals’ Tahj Staveskie led to a pair of Harding free throws with 13.9 seconds remaining to make it a two-possession game and allowed the Horned Frogs to hold on.
Fifteen of Punch’s points and seven of his game-high 13 rebounds came in the second half. Liutauras Lelevicius and Harding added 13 each for TCU.
Bailey finished with 32 points on 10 of 22 shooting from the floor for Incarnate Word (5-6).
Incarnate Word used an early 7-0 run, capped by a layup by Esteban Mann, to build a 10-4 lead five minutes into the game. The Cardinals expanded their advantage to double digits for the first time when Staveskie converted a layup at the 11:24 mark. They then went up 24-10 after Bailey hit a free throw with 9:25 to play in the half.
Jayden Pierre’s layup with 37 seconds left was part of a late surge in which the Horned Frogs made four of their final five field goals to pull to within 37-31 at the break.
Bailey led all scorers with 16 points before halftime on the strength of five 3-pointers as Incarnate Word shot 50% from the floor over the first 20 minutes of play. Lelevicius paced TCU with 11 points in the first half.
Pierre’s layup with 13:12 to play brought the Horned Frogs to within two points, but Jayden Williams canned back-to-back baskets, the latter with 9:57 left, to push Incarnate Word’s advantage back to six points. Punch’s hook shot with 8:28 tied the game at 56-56 and set the stage for the furious finish.
