BYU trails at break
Ronnie Moss hit a jumper in the lane in the closing seconds of the first half to give TCU a 40-39 lead over BYU at the break in the third quarterfinal game at the Mountain West Conference men’s basketball tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Moss has 15 points to lead the seventh-seeded Horned Frogs, who have made 5 of 7 from 3-point range and 7 of 8 from the foul line.
Jimmer Fredette also has 15 points for No. 2 BYU, which led by eight points midway through the half before TCU made a run to get back in the game.
Edvinas Ruzgas, Nikola Cerina and Garlon Green all have two fouls for TCU.
We’ve seen this before
TCU nearly stunned UNLV two years ago in the Mountain West Conference tournament by making 17 of 23 from 3-point range in a quarterfinal game.
The Horned Frogs are doing their best to replicate that performance, by percentage if not in volume.
TCU went 5-for-7 from beyond the arc in the first half to stay right with BYU.
The bad news for the Horned Frogs: Even in that great shooting game, they still lost.
Ecological nightmare
This tournament is certainly not being run by environmentalists.
They have gone through enough paper in three days of this tournament to cause the destruction of about three rain forests.
Each team, both men’s and women’s, provides game notes, postseason guides, stat sheets and just about every other piece of information you can think of, and that’s just the pregame material.
Box scores are handed out to every media member at each timeout, along with scores from other games, press conference transcripts, and lineup cards.
It’s unconscionable how much paper is being absolutely wasted at this tournament.
The league should be ashamed of itself.
It’s not all bad news for the ego-conscious, however.
They are using “green” cups that are made from natural materials.
Checking things out
UNLV senior Steve “Chop” Jones is about 10 rows up in the stands checking things out.
He is sitting with red shirting freshman Carlos Lopez.
Should the Rebels win, Jones and his teammates will take on the winner of this game in the semifinals.
