TCU rebounds with 79-59 win over Arizona State in the Coast to Coast Challenge

Using a big second half, TCU bounced back from its first loss of the season with a 79-59 win against Arizona State in the Coast to Coast Challenge on Saturday at Dickies Arena.

The Horned Frogs (8-1) defense led the way, holding the Sun Devils (6-4) to a paltry 59 points on 38.5% shooting. The Sun Devils offense was constantly out of sync turning the ball over 19 times and struggling to get consistent scoring outside of Adam Miller.

Micah Peavy shined for the Horned Frogs notching the third triple-double in school history with 13 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. Yet it was the senior’s second most impressive feat of the day after graduating from TCU earlier in the day.

“I’m always glad to get a [win] but, you know, I worked hard to get that degree, so I’ll say that degree because you could never take that away,” said Peavy.

The Horned Frogs, coming off their only loss of the season last Saturday against Clemson, trailed 30-26 at halftime, but used a 22-2 run at the beginning of the second half to put the game away.

Technical fouls turn the game around

The Sun Devils led 38-37 at 13:32 when Alonzo Gaffney received a technical from the bench which incensed Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley who was then also given a technical foul.

Emmanuel Miller would hit all four of his technical free throws and TCU captured the momentum, going on a 22-2 run over the following five minutes to take a double-digit lead it did not relinquish.

Miller said faith in the program has helped the Horned Frogs get off to hot starts in the second half.

“Just believing in our offense and defense. We execute day in and day out on a daily basis and we know if we stay true to our game, a great outcome is gonna come for that. So I think just staying true to our program,” said Miller

Horned Frogs’ Offense sputters in the first half

TCU has struggled with slow starts this season but never as much as its first half against the Sun Devils. The Horned Frogs scored 26 points on 36% shooting while going 1-for-9 on three-point field goals in the first half. The 26 points were the fewest TCU has scored in half this year.

TCU’s half-court offense has been an area where the team has been looking for improvement. However, against the Sun Devils, the Horned Frogs struggled to take care of the ball with eight turnovers and also couldn’t find consistent quality shots going 7-for-16 in the first half on shots at the rim.

Especially troubling was the Horned Frogs’ usually stellar transition offense was nowhere to be found with only eight fastbreak points in the first half.

Despite the outcome,TCU head coach Jamie Dixon liked his team’s offensive process for the most part.

“Our halfcourt offense I thought was fine in the first half. I thought we settled a little bit for some jump shots that we could have shot fake and drove them a little bit better and we did that in the second half, but our ball movement was good and I thought that was big for us,” said Dixon.

Adam Miller’s first game

Adam Miller played his first game for the Arizona State Sun Devils after being granted his eligibility thanks to a lawsuit by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost challenging the NCAA’s transfer eligibility rules. Miller had started his collegiate career at Illinois before transferring to LSU and then Arizona State.

Miller shined in his first game as a Sun Devil scoring 15 points before halftime and outscoring the entire Horned Frogs team for part of the first half.

However, Miller struggled after scoring only 5 points in the second half.

Emmanuel Miller’s scoring streak continues

Coming into TCU’s game against Arizona, Miller had been averaging 21.3 points over his last three games and credited his teammates for his recent scoring surge.

“Players like Micah, Jakobe [Coles], Jameer [Nelson Jr.], those players get me open shots. Our offense, we have a lot of versatile players and for other teams to scout us, you can’t just stop one of us, you have to stop all of us and when you take away one thing, another thing opens up. So I think that’s been a big help for my game this year,” said Miller.

Miller continued his hot shooting scoring 18 points on 6-of-14 shooting and led the Horned Frogs in scoring on the night.

The Ontario native did most of his damage in the second half scoring 12 of his 18 points after halftime.

TCU will play Old Dominion next at 4 p.m. on Thursday at the Stan Sheriff Center in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.