The UH men’s basketball team blew an 18-point halftime time lead, but managed to hold off a late second half rally by San José State, winning on the road Tuesday night at the San José State Event Center 77-75.
Sophomore forward TaShawn Thomas led the team with 17 points and 10 rebounds including three of the team’s seven blocks. Sophomore guard Joseph Young also contributed 17 points in his return to the lineup after missing the season open against Florida A&M. Freshman forward Danuel House came off the bench to chip in 11 points and junior guard Brandon Morris contributed 10 points.
After leading 44-26 at halftime, the Cougars had a tougher time scoring in the second half not making a bucket until 17:38 and with 15 minutes to play, the Spartans chiseled the lead down to 13. This is when Young stepped in to take the point for the slumping Cougars, scoring 13 of 17 points in the second half, 11 of which came during the last 15 minutes.
House also contributed big down the stretch, scoring 7 of his 11 points in a 2:19 stretch, putting the Cougars back up by 15 with 4:30 left to play.
Things would get dicey for the Cougars, as San José rallied to make things interesting; however, the Cougars joined to go 8-of-10 at the line down the stretch to improve to 2-0 for the third straight season.
The Cougars return home to host Grambling State on 7 p.m. Saturday at Hofheinz Pavilion before hosting Louisiana College at 7 p.m. Monday.
