Frogs hold a Garden party
NEW YORK — TCU’s Brandon Parrish sat at the podium, wearing a commemorative T-shirt and a net draped around his neck. To his right was coach Jamie Dixon. On his left was Kenrich Williams.
“We have something that’s forever,” Parrish said. “Nobody can ever take this away from us.”
Williams had 25 points and 12 rebounds, and TCU routed Georgia Tech 88-56 in the National Invitation Tournament championship at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night. The junior guard went 8-for14 from the field and was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
“We knew he was a good player,” Dixon said. “We’ve found better ways to use him in even better situations where we’re even more comfortable and to be honest, he was out about a year and a half. He’s just now getting his legs under him and getting game-like conditions. His play down the stretch has been unbelievable.”
TCU opened with a 20-3 run on its way to the program’s first NIT title. Vlad Brodziansky scored 18 points for the Horned Frogs (24-15), and Alex Robinson had 10 points and 11 assists.
Tadric Jackson led Georgia Tech (21-16) with 19 points. Josh Okogie had 12 points and six rebounds.
The 32-point win matches the largest margin of victory in NIT championship game history. Bradley set the record in 1964 with an 86-54 rout of New Mexico.
It was the first meeting between the programs since Dec. 21, 1967. And it mostly belonged to TCU, which never trailed.
The Horned Frogs led 38-27 at halftime, and it was more of the same in the second half.
“They punched us first,” Georgia Tech senior Quinton Stephens said. “We put ourselves in a little bit of a hole.”
The lead grew to 69-49 on Williams’ breakaway jam with 6:44 left. Desmond Bane tacked on a 3, helping kick off the celebration for TCU..