The Cougars had just finished their toughest stretch of the season, facing three top-15 opponents in a one-week span. At No. 6 Iowa State, home against No. 4 Arizona, and on the road again, at No. 14 Kansas. Each opponent pulled away and came out on top, raising the stakes for this home matchup against the Colorado Buffaloes.
After their home loss against the Wildcats, senior guards Emmanual Sharpe and Milos Uzan agreed that “staying together” is the number one priority to get back to their winning ways and standard of play.
Uzan quickly put action behind his words, starting hot and immediately scoring 11 points in the first ten minutes of play. He only missed one of his four shots from beyond the arc.
Coach Kelvin Sampson previously highlighted that the lack of transition points was one of the main hindrances throughout their last few games.
“If we scooped up some of those long rebound misses then I think we could have turned them into some transition point opportunities,” Sampson said last week. “We have to figure something out with our defense because our defense is allowing us to play too much in the halfcourt, that’s a tough way to make a living against tough defenses.”
This was a main focus point coming into Saturday morning’s game, and was executed very well by the Cougars. Having 18 first half rebounds directly contributed to freshman guard Kingston Fleming’s six first half assists, mainly going to Houston’s bigs running the lane while pushing up the floor.
“Every time Kingston got a defensive rebound…that was a big emphasis this week. Our guards getting defensive rebounds and pushing the pace, scoring in transition and scoring early,” Sampson explained.
Houston couldn’t have had too much better of a first half, shooting nearly 55% from three, and only having 2 turnovers while forcing 10 turnovers catapulted them to a 55-29 lead at the intermission.
Little by little, things began to unravel for the Buffaloes. Around the three minute mark Colorado coach Tad Boyle received his second technical, leaving the Buffaloes trying to close this gap without their head coach.
Both teams picked up their intensity and effort in the second half, however with Houston already rolling, there would be no stopping them. Uzan continued his scoring onslaught finishing with 26 points and 6 assists, with Flemings contributing 8 assists of his own.
The Cougars had seven players score double figures, and cracked 100 points with a little over three minutes left in the game.
With just two games left in conference play, Houston is eager to finish strong. Using this 102-62 victory, the Cougars are looking to fine tune whatever they can before the Big 12 tournament, which takes place two weeks from now in Kansas City.
“Anytime you come off a stretch of losses it’s super important to try to regroup and whatever you emphasize in practice apply that to the game. I think we did a good job of that,” said Uzan.
Wednesday, March 4th will be the final home game of the regular season, and will also be senior night. The opponent will be the Baylor Bears who the Cougars previously beat 77-55 in January.
Delivered by Le’Raun Peron
