The Horned Frogs bolted out of the gates as soon as they won the tipoff at Madison Square Garden in New York City Thursday night. The Frogs started the game with a 20-3 run en route to an 88-56 victory and a National Invitational Tournament title against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The win gave TCU its first postseason tournament title.

TCU forward Vladimir Brodziansky set the tone early, scoring the game’s first basket on a midrange jumper from the left elbow and then blocking center Ben Lammers, the ACC Defensive Player of the Year and second-leading scorer, on the other end to force a turnover. Brodziansky finished the game with 18 points and six rebounds.

Five minutes passed before the Yellow Jackets were able to hit on a shot from the field, by which time the Horned Frogs already built a 13 point lead, 16-3.

“No question, our defense led to our offense, and that’s what we want to be,” TCU head coach Jamie Dixon said. “We got turnovers; we got stops; we got transition the other way, and we’ve been pretty good in transition, and we’re getting better at it, but the defense starts, no question.”

With just under 12 minutes left in the first half, Georgia Tech began to mount a climb back into the game, scoring ten consecutive points and trimming TCU’s lead to just 21-15.

But, the Horned Frogs countered the run with an emphatic JD Miller and-one layup and an Alex Robinson Jr. floater in the one to push the TCU back up 11, 26-15, with 6:26 left in the first half.

TCU was up 38-27 at halftime and led the Yellow Jackets in nearly every statistic after the first 20 minutes except for three-point shooting. Read More