The Frogs kept their game against Auburn close for the first 25 minutes, but couldn’t close in the second half, falling 88-80.

The loss to the Tigers was the fourth straight and dropped the Frogs’ record to 14-7 overall.

With just under 15 minutes left in the game, Auburn sprinted ahead on 25-2 run that TCU failed to stop until there was about 7:30 left to play.

“We’re on a slide here, and we have to go figure it out,” TCU head coach Jamie Dixon said. “They outplayed us, simply no other way to put it.”

The Horned Frogs were outscored in the paint 56-48 and allowed the Tigers to score 20 second chance points.

“I was surprised we were that bad defensively,” Dixon said. “We gave them layups, couldn’t guard the dribble, and we couldn’t finish up possessions on rebounds.”

The central reason for TCU’s problems in the paint was Auburn’s first-year center Austin Wiley. He scored 25 points on 11-13 shooting.

“Wiley had great numbers, but I feel like a lot of that came from his guards getting penetration out front,” Dixon said. “To his credit, he did his job, and his size stands out.”

Things were made worse when TCU’s starting forward and the Big 12 leading rebounder Kenrich Williams fouled out early in the second half.

“He brings a lot of toughness to our team, because you don’t have the nickname Kenny Hustle for nothing,” TCU guard Alex Robinson Jr. said. “He brings a lot of leadership to our team on the court, and I feel like we missed him today.”

The Horned Frogs’ biggest problem over the course of their losing streak had been shooting, but on Saturday TCU shot 51 percent from the field. However, their free throw shooting hampered TCU’s scoring efforts, as they shot 9-20 from the line.

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