Box Score
FORT WORTH – A magical season came to an end for the Sam Houston State Bearkats on Wednesday night as they fell to TCU, 82-69, at Schollmaier Arena in the opening round of the NIT.
The Bearkats (21-12), who were making the first NIT appearance in school history, entered as the No. 8 seed in the bracket and led for the majority of the first half until the top-seeded Horned Frogs (21-13) closed on a 15-3 run in the opening 20 minutes before leading by as much as 17 in the second half.
TCU dominated the paint with a 50-28 advantage in the lane, doing most of its damage in the second half when it hit 70.4 percent (19 of 27) of its shots from the floor. That was just enough to keep the Kats at bay, despite SHSU cutting the lead down to single digits in the game’s final minutes.
Kai Mitchell turned in the biggest night of any player on the court, connecting on 11 field goals to put up a season-high 24 points to go with 10 rebounds in 34 minutes of court time, with 18 of those points coming in the second half. Cameron Delaney, the Southland Conference Player of the Year, had 15 points to go with five assists.
Josh Delaney hit just two of his eight field goal tries, but doled out seven assists while freshman Zach Nutall had 12 points and six rebounds off the bench. SHSU hit a solid 47.7 percent from the field, but canned just six of its 21 tries from an extended 3-point line (due to NIT experimental rules) and shot just four foul shots in the game.
Albert Almanza also added seven points and a pair of assists in his final game as a Bearkat.
Meanwhile, six Horned Frogs finished in double figures, led by 15 points from JD Miller and a double-double by point guard Alex Robinson that included 13 points and 11 of TCU’s 20 assists.
The undersized Kats held their own on the glass, being outrebounded just 38-33, and held TCU to just 6-for-22 from distance; however, the Horned Frogs attempted 28 foul shots in the game, hitting just a dozen.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Cameron Delaney put in 11 of his points in the opening half and the Kats led by as much as eight points in the opening half, holding the lead for 17:30 of the first 20 minutes; however, TCU caught fire late in the opening stanza and closed on a 15-3 run to take a 34-30 lead into the break.
The Kats scored the first bucket of the second half, but TCU responded with eight straight points and eventually built the lead up to 61-44 with 9:47 to play on the strength of another 8-0 run.
But SHSU got a layup from Xavier Bryant, who finished with six assists and no turnovers in eight minutes of work, to spark a 9-3 run that quickly got them back in the game. That run included Mitchell’s first 3-point bucket of the year and Nutall’s third bucket of the half.
Still, TCU was able to keep the lead at double digits until two more scores from Nutall and Mitchell cut the lead down to 73-65 with just 3:28 to go; however, Kouat Noi drained a crucial 3-point basket two possessions later to stretch the lead back to 11 and essentially seal the game.
