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Ross James/ALOST

akoiki-passport2 – by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief

 

FORT WORTH, Texas — The TCU Horned Frogs men’s basketball team was treated to a virtuoso performance, though, to their dismay, the brilliance on the basketball court was done at their expense.

However, TCU had its own player put on a career-best performance, and his heroics won the day in giving the Horned Frogs a thrilling victory in their conference opener.

RJ Nembhard scored 31 points, including the game-tying three-pointer with 1.7 seconds left in regulation, in leading the Horned Frogs to a 81-79 victory over Iowa State at Schollmaier Arena on Saturday afternoon.

The see-saw affair featured a near can-you-top-this element in the backcourt, with Nembhard’s stellar play at the end of the play matched up with Iowa State’s Tyrese Haliburton, who ended up with a triple-double with 22 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.

Haliburton’s two free throws with eight seconds left in regulation gave Iowa State a 74-71 lead before the Horned Frogs sped up the court and ended their possession with Nembhard’s near 30-foot three-pointer that swished through to send the game to an extra five minutes.

Nembhard scored 21 of the Horned Frogs’ final 32 points, making 10-of-15 from the field and sinking six of his eight three-point attempts. His free throw with 3:36 remaining in overtime opened the scoring in the extra session, and the last of his six threes gave the Horned Frogs a 78-74 lead as TCU did not trail at any point in the overtime.

Haliburton, who missed Iowa State’s shocking home loss to Florida A&M on New Year’s Eve after spraining his wrist in practice prior to it, came back on action on Saturday and posted the Cyclones’ first triple-double since current Denver Nuggets guard Monte Morris pulled the trick against The Citadel in 2016.

*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Saturday afternoon’s game, with all photos taken by Dallas-area photographer Ross James. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are 33 pictures in total.

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Tags : Big 12 ConferenceCollege BasketballIowa State CyclonesTCU Horned Frogs

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