Graduate center Fabian White Jr. finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds in No. 12 Houston’s win over Temple Sunday evening in Philadelphia. | Victor Carroll/The Cougar
Shorthanded No. 12 Houston snuck past Temple 66-61 on the road in the first game since the teams leading scorer Marcus Sasser announced that he will miss the remainder of the season.
The Cougars came out hot, scoring on their first four baskets which included back-to-back threes from both freshman guard Ramon Walker Jr and graduate center Fabian White to jump out to an early 10-3 lead.
White was three for three from the field with seven points through the first five minutes of the game.
The Cougars had four offensive rebounds in the first eight minutes of the game, White had three of them and UH as a team were out-rebounding the Owls 11-4 by the halfway point in the first half.
Another 8-0 run for UH pushed the lead to 13 early before the Owls were able to end their three minute scoring slump.
Temple found their offense from there, the Owls cut the lead down to single digits off an 13-4 run of their own and made it a 24-20 game with 7:12 to play in the first half.
UH answered with yet another run of their own, scoring 12 straight points with no answer from the Owls and got the lead up to its largest of the half at 16 points after a put-back slam from sophomore J’Wan Roberts.
The strong closeout of the first half sent the Cougars into the locker room up 40-29.
Temple refused to go away easy and came out the halftime break with a sense of urgency as they opened the half with a 12-2 run in the first four minutes to make it a one point game at 42-41.
The run was led by Owl redshirt freshman Damian Nunn, he had seven of the 12 points in the first five minutes of the half.
Just as the trend had been all game, the Cougars went on yet another run of their own to take the lead back up to double digits after holding the Owls scoreless for another five and a half minutes, but the Owls came roaring back.
Temple had one last run in them, going on a 10-2 run to make it a two point game with 3:30 left in the game.
Walker knocked down a big three to make it a five point game again with roughly two minutes to play and the Cougars were able to close out the game and secure the win despite being shorthanded.
White finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds, including eight offensive boards.
Jamal Shead had 14 points with six assists and a pair of rebounds, as he played the entire 40 minutes.
