West Virginia led TCU by 12 in the first half on Wednesday and then after trailing by 11 in the second half, the Mountaineers tied it up late.
TCU would pull away late though, as West Virginia couldn't complete the comeback after their first-half lead was erased.
"The biggest thing I told the guys is, the first half they shoot 35 percent, and second half they shoot 50 [percent]. That's the game, that's us. We have to defend. We got down 11, and we crank it back up again, and we crawl back into a tie game. Now it comes down to who can make the most plays in the last few minutes," West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries said.
West Virginia led by 12 with 6:08 to play in the first half and then led by eight with 3:32 to play in the first. Still, TCU was able to cut WVU's lead to just one at the break.
"Had a 10-point lead in the under-four timeout. We actually went into the timeout, 'Guys you worked your tails off for the first 15 minutes, these last four we got to finish this, don't let them crawl back into it.' And then we had some silly turnovers and gave up a few easy buckets and now you're up one at half instead of 10-12-13," DeVries said.
Another key to the game was TCU's ability to get to and convert, at the free throw line.
TCU entered the game second-to-last in the Big 12 in free throw percentage, and 14th in the league in free throw attempts during Big 12 play. Tonight though, they shot 23 free throws, making 20 of them, while WVU had just five free throw attempts, and three of them came in the final three minutes of the game.
"We got to play without fouling," DeVries said without offering any further comment.
West Virginia now returns home for a two-game stretch against Utah and BYU. The Mountaineers are looking to continue to climb towards the upper tier of the Big 12 standings, while they also continue to try and solidify their NCAA Tournament resume.
"This group can do it. They've done it all year, just like always, we got to do it for a full 40 and we're really close at times and then there's also those little lapses. Just not a team that can afford very long stretches when our defense isn't good because it's harder for us to keep up," DeVries said.
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