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Horned
Frogs aim high in game against UAB It has been more than a month since the men’s basketball team has scored 100 points in a game. The last time that happened they lost the game, but junior forward Bingo Merriex said he wants to return to that scoring-form in the Frogs’ last five games of the season. For Merriex and the Frogs to reach the 100-point mark in their next outing they will have to score points against a Alabama-Birmingham team which man-handled the Frogs interior game in a 77-71 loss to the Blazers Jan. 29.
TCU (13-12, 3-8 C-USA) will get a chance to reach that century-mark in scoring and get a bit of revenge against UAB (11-12, 4-6 C-USA) 7:05 p.m. tonight at Bartow Arena. “We need to score points to win,” Merriex said. “I feel pretty good because we will have a little momentum going against UAB. I think we will have a lot of confidence as a team and we will play even better than we did when we played UAB here at home earlier.” TCU is fresh off a 87-69 win over Houston (12-11, 5-5 C-USA) on Saturday. The win marked the second consecutive conference victory. “I think the big thing for us (against Houston) was defense and rebounding,” Merriex said. “I think we rebounded the best we have in conference (play). That helped us win the game.” Head coach Billy Tubbs said he wants to try to get the offense moving early in the UAB game. “We have to do something to get the game up and down the court,” Tubbs said. “We don’t have a great pressing team but we need to use that defense to score some points. That is the key for our offense.” Tubbs said wins will come if his ballclub can control the rebounding edge. Against Houston, the Frogs out-rebounded the Cougars by a double-digit margin. TCU also had an edge on the offensive boards (23-12). In the loss against UAB, the Frogs were out-rebounded 52-45. Blazer center Will Campbell recorded a double-double (30 points and 19 rebounds) against a vulnerable Horned Frog interior defense. Senior Marlon Dumont, who defended Campbell in the contest, could not get anything going on the offensive end. Dumont scored one point and grabbed two rebounds against the over-powering Campbell. “The whole deal in this conference is that if you rebound, then you will be in good shape,” Tubbs said. “In the first game (against UAB) we did not grab those rebounds, but we have been better on the glass lately.” Tubbs said junior center Rebel Paulk must have an impact to slow down the Blazers’ big men. Although he finished with only two points, Paulk was a presence on the defensive end against Houston. Paulk had four assists, three rebounds and two blocked shots against the Cougars. “I thought Rebel played well in the game,” Tubbs said. “He gave a little spark, when he came in we were down. The key to the game was the run right before he before entered the game.” Tubbs said the remainder of the road games are critical in order to get into the conference tournament in Cincinnati March 6-9. “I feel that every game left out there is a winnable game,” Tubbs said. “They are all going to be tough, but realistically we can win all of them, but the road games are vital for us. It will come down to who makes baskets and gets rebounds.” Ram
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TCU Daily Skiff © 2002 |
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