No. 8 Houston sophomore guard Marcus Sasser rises up for one of his 12 3-pointers against Tulsa. He finished two points shy of tying his career-high of 28 points. | Andy Yanez/The Cougar
No. 8 Houston got its revenge against Tulsa from the lone loss earlier in the season on Wednesday night with a 86-59 victory at the Fertitta Center.
The game began as a 3-point shootout. Both teams’ first two makes came from 3-point range in the contest, but the Cougars took off and pulled away quickly with a red-hot start from sophomore guard Marcus Sasser.
UH’s hot start began with a 9-0 run to force the first Tulsa timeout at 15-6, just six minutes in and continued it, making a 23-3 run with a 29-9 lead with 12 minutes of play, all while shooting 57% from the during the run.
The Cougars dominated offensive rebounding early, getting five offensive boards and seven second-chance points in the first five minutes alone, with 13 offensive rebounds by halftime and 28 total for the game.
UH outrebounded Tulsa 54-28 total for the game.
The Cougars were difficult to stop both inside and from deep, shooting 40 percent from three with 13 triples total.
Sampson’s defense was a success, forcing Tulsa to 30 percent shooting from the field and nine turnovers in the first half, and finished at 38 percent with 16 turnovers.
Dominating on both sides of the floor put the Cougars up 45-19 at the half, with 18 points from Sasser.
The second half began with a skirmish and resulted in technical and free throws for Tulsa, however, both were missed, but Tulsa still went on an early 11-2 run to begin the half and cut the lead to 17.
Tulsa had doubled their point total in just over seven minutes through the second half, however, the Cougars were just as hot from the field, answering anything and everything and took the lead all the way up to 30.
Sasser led the way with 26 points and Quentin Grimes had a big game with 18 points and seven rebounds.
