With Houston’s reputation and NCAA Tournament hopes on the line, the not-so-normal freshman guard Brockeith Pane came through in the clutch and gave the Cougars the edge they needed to get a 73-66 win over injury-depleted Texas Southern on Wednesday at Hofheinz Pavilion.
Pane scored a game-high and career-high 20 points, all coming in the second half. He led the team on a nearly four-minute 14-2 run that put the Cougars (4-1) ahead 54-41 with 10 minutes left in the game.
The Cougars would not hold their double-digit lead, but that run gave the cushion needed to pull out the close game.
TSU (1-3) got within striking distance when guard Matthew Miller hit a layup that cut the lead to 67-62 with 2:20 left in the game.
However, Cougars senior guard Lanny Smith, who also did all of his damage in the second half, pulled out one of his old tricks to seal the game in the final minute.
He had the isolation and the green light as the shot clock winded down. Smith crossed over his defender and performed a spin move to avoid the help. In mid-spin, he elevated, flicked his wrist and watched as the floater swished through the net.
That shot put Houston ahead 69-62 with 1:03 remaining in the game.
Houston possessed most of the momentum for most of the second half, but it was a different story in the first 20 minutes.
The Cougars took a 28-27 lead into the locker room at halftime, but they were physically dominated and, at times, looked as if they were out of their league.
The Tigers out-hustled and outrebounded the Cougars in the first period, taking a 32-15 advantage on rebounds. This was all done without the presence of their leading rebounder and last season’s leading scorer Jacques Jones, who suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in the Tigers’ 78-57 loss to Texas-El Paso on Sunday.
Guard David Burrell stepped up and kept the game in reach for the Tigers. He used a Jamal Crawford-like crossover and pull-up jumper that gave the Cougars trouble all game. He finished with a team-high 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting.
