Coleton Benson drained four 3-pointers en route to a 24-point night, Jakevion Buckley added 13 points and nine assists and New Orleans stunned TCU 78-74 on Monday in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Privateers (1-0) didn’t look like a team that went 4-27 a season ago. New Orleans outshot TCU 49.1% to 38.8% from the field and won the rebounding battle 38-28. MJ Thomas finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, and Panagiotis Pagonis had nine points and seven rebounds.
The Horned Frogs (0-1), meanwhile, lost a season opener for the first time in Jamie Dixon’s 10 seasons at his alma mater. They had a forgettable night from 3-point range, going 3-for-27 from deep. David Punch had a team-high 19 points and eight rebounds, and Micah Robinson finished with 14 points and six rebounds.
New Orleans took control of the game in the first half, going on an 11-1 run to build a 37-17 lead by the 6:49 mark. At the break, the Privateers led 44-28.
It appeared New Orleans would cruise to a victory after it went ahead 70-50 on a pair of free throws by Pagonis with seven minutes left in the game. However, TCU stormed back in it.
The Frogs went on a 20-2 run, pulling to within 72-70 after a pair of free throws by Robinson with 1:20 left. The Privateers answered with a driving layup by Tavaj Cope to make it a four-point edge with 1:06 left.
TCU got back to within 74-72 on a jumper by Brock Harding with 36.2 seconds left. TCU then had a couple of chances to take the lead after New Orleans turned it over, but it missed both of its 3-point attempts in a span of six seconds.
New Orleans got the ball back and proceeded to go 4-for-6 from the free throw line in the final 18 seconds to hang on for the upset. TCU hadn’t lost a season-opening game since falling to SMU to open the 2013-14 season.
Jayden Pierre and Xavier Edmonds finished with 11 points apiece for TCU.
