The men’s basketball team came into Tuesday’s season opener against Nicholls State well aware that several teams from larger conferences than Conference USA had already lost to lesser opponents this week.
But it was last season’s opener ‘- a 65-63 loss to Georgia Southern ‘- that was on Tom Penders and his players’ minds. UH made sure not to let history repeat itself this time, topping the Colonels 92-60 in front of an underwhelming crowd of 3,076 at Hofheinz Pavilion.
Penders, for one, was pleased with his team’s focus throughout the game. He was particularly impressed with how senior guard Aubrey Coleman played, given his 2-for-12 shooting performance in last year’s opening loss.
‘You never know early in the season, you really don’t,’ Penders said. ‘Aubrey’s much calmer now. He’s older, more mature and one of the very best players in the country.’
Coleman atoned for his lackluster performance in his first game as a Cougar last season. He finished 12-for-25 for a game-high 33 points and nearly missed a double-double with nine rebounds. Coleman also had four steals, which helped UH maintain its fast-paced style of play.
Things didn’t start out so well for Coleman and the rest of the Cougars, as the Colonels jumped out to a 7-0 lead to start the game, prompting Penders to call an early timeout to regroup.
Coleman said last season’s opener and the slew of upsets around the country played a role in the Cougars’ sluggish start. But he chalked some of it to opening-night jitters, both for him and some of the team’s newcomers.
‘Obviously, we didn’t want what happened last year to happen this year because our team is better this year,’ Coleman said. ‘Everybody was nervous because it’s the first game that really counts.’
The Cougars would weather the Colonels’ early surge and responded with their own 9-2 run to knot the game at 9-9 on a Maurice McNeal follow of a Coleman miss.
McNeal, who was fouled on the play, missed the ensuing free throw, but Coleman followed a Kirk Van Slyke rebound with a driving layup and free throw to give the Cougars their first lead at 12-9 with 14:42 remaining in the first half.
The Colonels would tie the game at 12-12 on a 3-pointer by Kenny Franklin, Jr. but the Cougars countered with a 25-10 run to close out the half with a 37-22 lead. The Cougars made their share of shots during their end-of-the-half run, but it was their defensive effort that allowed them to stretch the lead.
‘That’s what really got us started ‘- our defense,’ Coleman said. ‘At first, our shots weren’t falling, but we just focused on defense and that’s what got us that lead before the half.’
Senior guard Kelvin Lewis, who chipped in 18 points on 6-or-10 shooting, agreed that the early defensive effort took Nicholls State out of its game plan and played into the Cougars’ style of play.
‘When we locked down defensively, we took their mind out of the game and they didn’t know what to do,’ Lewis said. ‘The defense, when we picked it up, we started scoring easily on offense and then our other offense started flowing in the half-court (sets).’
Both teams came out of the break with a plan to attack the basket. The Colonels had early success, scoring the first eight points of the half to cut the Cougars’ lead to 37-30.’ As the Cougars did in the first half, they responded with a 15-5 run to extend their lead to 52-35 with 15:32 left and never looked back.
Coleman said Nicholl State’s physical style of play forced the Cougars to trade in the perimeter for the paint.
‘Our goal for the second half was to drive, because they were basically playing football with us,’ Coleman said. ‘So the goal was to drive, get fouled and make our foul shots.’
The Cougars will now hit the road for 10-game road trip that won’t see them play at Hofheinz Pavilion until they face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Dec. 6.
Their next contest comes at 10:05 p.m. Saturday when they travel to Reno, Nev. to face Nevada before participating in the Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage, Alaska from Nov. 26-28.
