Vasean Allette notched his second career double-double and TCU withstood a late rally to beat visiting West Virginia 65-60 on Wednesday in Fort Worth, Texas.
Allette contributed 22 points, 11 rebounds and five assists as the Horned Frogs (12-10, 5-6 Big 12) won their second straight and beat the Mountaineers for the fourth straight time.
Noah Reynolds added 20 points for TCU, which trailed by 12 points late in the first half before building an 11-point lead after the break. The Horned Frogs then prevailed after letting the visitors tie the game twice in the final four minutes.
Big 12 scoring leader Javon Small (19.0 ppg) led the late surge for West Virginia (14-8, 5-6), scoring 10 of his 20 points in the final 6:34.
Joseph Yesufu added 11 points and fellow reserve Eduardo Andre finished with 10 on 5-of-5 shooting.
TCU went on a 22-4 run which bridged halves to turn the 12-point deficit into a six-point lead.
When Allette made a steal and sprinted for a breakaway slam, he gave TCU its biggest lead, 54-43, with 7:56 left before Small led West Virginia’s comeback.
Small scored the final eight points of a 10-0 run that cut the deficit to one, and the Mountaineers later pulled even at 56 on Powell’s 3-pointer with 3:53 to go.
Small’s layup at the 1:29 mark tied the game again before Allette responded with a three-point play to give the Horned Frogs the lead for good.
In the final nine seconds, Allette scored on a putback and hit a pair of free throws to sew up TCU’s victory.
West Virginia dominated the opening six minutes with its defense. During a 10-point run, the Mountaineers forced five turnovers and seven straight missed shots.
Harris fueled the spree with two baskets as the Mountaineers took a 10-2 lead.
Two 3-pointers midway through the half by Small and a slam by Toby Okani gave West Virginia its biggest lead of the half, 25-13.
But in the final six minutes of the period, Reynolds and Allette made two baskets each and Micah Robinson drained a 3-pointer as the Horned Frogs whittled the deficit to 29-28 at the break.
Allette added two more baskets as TCU scored the first seven points of the second half to take a 35-29 lead.
Reynolds then took over, scoring nine points in a span of 2:06 to help the Horned Frogs stretch their advantage to 46-36.
–Field Level Media
