FORT WORTH, Texas — West Virginia already had lost games that went down to the final minutes. The Mountaineers even lost one by squandering a 21-point lead.
The only thing left was to get blown out, which the Mountaineers did Tuesday night 98-67 against TCU, in front of 6,734 fans inside the Schollmaier Arena. It was the most points the Mountaineers (8-9, 0-5 Big 12) have allowed in Big 12 play.
TCU’s Desmond Bane went off for 26 points and point guard Alex Robinson had a double-double with 14 points and 10 assists. Six Frogs scored in double figures.
“It wasn’t their defense that gave us problems,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. “It was their offense. They’re a good defensive team, but they’re a great offensive team.”
BOXSCORE: TCU 98, West Virginia 67
There was more: TCU’s 20-point halftime lead was the largest deficit faced by WVU this season. Then the Horned Frogs blew that up and led by as many as 35 in the second half before both teams began to sub players.
“For the most part, I think the guys who were out there, I think we gave it our all,” said West Virginia guard Beetle Bolden, who finished with 15 points, but picked up a technical foul and fouled out of the game late in the second half. “It just wasn’t our night tonight. I kept saying in our huddle, ‘We still have got a lot to prove and we still have got a lot of time on the clock, so play every minute as hard as you can.’ ”
And well before it was over, it was over, and no amount of coaching or instruction from Huggins could change what was happening on the court.
“We didn’t compete,” Huggins said. “We got down and we kind of settled to lose instead of competing.
“I think that’s the most its been that rampant. We’ve got a couple of guys who don’t compete and we got a couple of guys who won’t listen. I’m not going to ask them to do anything anymore. They can just sit on the bench and be happy, I guess.”
It was TCU’s largest margin of victory in a Big 12 game since joining the league in 2012-13.
“Wow,” Bane said. “It shows where the program is headed. The ceiling is high for this program.”
TCU, after starting the game 1-for-7 shooting and being held to just two points over the first three minutes, took control. Any hope the Mountaineers had of picking up their first league win of the season ended right there, as Bolden, Jermaine Haley, Derek Culver, Esa Ahmad, Chase Harler and Lamont West all picked up two fouls. Bolden picked up two before the game was 2 minutes old and eventually picked up a third in the first half, and the Horned Frogs (13-3, 2-2) began to heat up.
“Beetle getting the two early hurt, but he’s playing hard and its not necessarily his fault,” Harler said. “Other people have to step up, including myself. We didn’t do a good job of guarding them.”
The fourth-worst loss of Bob Huggins’ coaching career saw him relegated to sitting quietly on his stool, arms crossed, during the final minutes.
What else could he say after the Mountaineers gave up more than 90 points for the third time this season?
“I don’t know, is it a fear of losing or a fear of winning and then people are going to expect things from you? I’m not sure,” Huggins said. “They say the right things most of the time, but then they don’t go out and do them.”
In getting there, TCU connected on 12 3-pointers, the most in Big 12 play against WVU since Kansas got 15 last March and shot 47.5 percent (29-of-61) from the floor.
Those numbers are only going to worsen a West Virginia defense that was already the worst in the Big 12 in those two categories.
“Early, we had some good looks, but we weren’t making them,” Harler said. “While we weren’t making them, TCU was hitting shots. You can trade buckets, but if you’re not scoring, the hole only gets deeper. That’s kind of what happened.”
TCU, which played without injured starting guards Jaylen Fisher and RJ Nembhard, scored 50 points in the second half, matching the same effort the Mountaineers gave up last week against Kansas State, when the Wildcats erased a 21-point deficit.
“We beat ourselves, honestly,” Bolden said. “Our coaches did a fantastic job of preparing us for each and every game, just like they did tonight. We didn’t execute. We were late with our communications and that led to TCU getting a lot of easy baskets at the rim.”
Wesley Harris, fresh off getting benched in Saturday’s loss against Oklahoma State, finished with 13 points, but the Mountaineers were held to just 38 percent shooting overall and 3-of-18 from 3-point range.
“They shoot a lot of 3s and, if they get it going, they can be really dangerous,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “We just never let them get going in that regard.”