Senior guard Kyler Edwards led the Cougars in scoring with 19 points and seven rebounds. | Armando Yanez/The Cougar
UH men’s basketball capped off its conference regular-season schedule with a 75-61 defeat on the road against Memphis.
The Cougars finish the regular season with a 26-5 overall record while sitting at 15-3 in American Athletic Conference play.
Memphis’ full-court press and disruptive defense posed a challenge for the UH men’s basketball team to start the game as the Cougars recorded five turnovers inside the first 3:43.
The Tigers took control early as they jumped on a 7-2 run to lead 11-4 and force a Cougars timeout.
Foul trouble haunted UH early on as sophomore guard Jamal Shead, graduate guard Taze Moore and graduate forward Josh Carlton all recorded two fouls inside the first 10 minutes of the game.
Moving past the midway point in the first half, Memphis pulled away to a 28-16 lead after opening the game 3-for-4 from the 3-point line.
After UH cut the deficit to 10 points at 30-20, Memphis swung momentum back in its favor with a 12-0 run to lead 42-20 and force the Cougars to call timeout with 3:54 left in the half.
Memphis extended its lead to 20 points as it led 49-29 by halftime.
The Tigers’ bench proved to be deep as they outscored the Cougars’ bench 27-0 in the first half and every player on the Memphis roster recorded two points in the period.
Graduate forward Fabian White Jr. led the Cougars with nine points and two rebounds.
The second half saw both teams exchange scores and trips down the court as Memphis held on to its sizeable lead at 59-38 with 14:32 left in the period.
UH jumped out to an 8-0 run, making the score 59-46 with 11:44 left in the second half. Memphis responded to this with a 9-0 run and kept the Cougars scoreless for five minutes to extend the lead to 68-46 with 7:30 left in the game.
Late buckets by the UH men’s basketball team thinned the gap to 14 points, but Memphis closed out a dominant performance as the clock hit triple-zeros.
Senior guard Kyler Edwards led UH in scoring with 19 points and seven rebounds while Moore recorded 16 points.
