UH head coach Tom Penders received contributions from everyone. His team knew it had a chance to make a statement on a national stage, and it rose to the occasion.
Senior guards Lanny Smith, Robert "Fluff" McKiver, Marcus Malone and Dion Dowell stroked, swished, posterized and dished their way to an 83-69 win Tuesday night at Hofheinz Pavilion.
The Cougars ended the first half on a strong note by going on a four-minute 10-0 run to take a 12-point, 45-33 lead. McKiver knocked down a pair of free throws and nailed a jumper, while Smith penetrated and dished to Dowell, who knocked down his open three-pointers.
Houston carried that momentum into the second half and started it out on a 19-5 run to take a 64-43 lead with 11:12 remaining in the game after Malone drilled a shot from downtown.
Penders said his team was confident it would take it to Kentucky Tuesday.
"We expected to win tonight," he said. "It didn’t matter who Kentucky had on the floor. We felt that we were the better team. We felt that we had better guards than they did. We felt that Dion Dowell was the best player in the building whether anybody else played or not."
Dowell helped set the mood early in the game for the Cougars with a play that sent the crowd and his teammates into a frenzy.
He got the ball near the top of the key and dribbled around defenders until he made it to the basket, elevated, cocked it back with his left hand and threw it down over a flailing Joe Crawford, who most certainly had to relive the rim-rattling dunk over and over again on ESPN.
"(Dowell’s) been really attacking the basket much better this year," Penders said. "Now he’s just playing with more reckless abandon."
Dowell finished with a team-high 19 points, while McKiver hovered slightly above his average with an 18-point game.
Houston’s center Nick Mosely and forward Tafari Toney made sure to step up their games on national television with the absence of 6-11 big man Marcus Cousin, who is recovering from a stress fracture in his foot.
Mosely came in for Toney, who picked up two early fouls in the first half, and gave the Cougars an edge by tipping arrant balls to keep them in play, picking up rebounds and knocking down open shots.
When he found himself on the court, Toney dominated the Kentucky big men. He cleaned the boards, put back shots and drew fouls. Kentucky freshman sensation Patrick Patterson may have been out with an injury, but Toney wasn’t going to hold anything back.
"I thought one of the keys to the game was (Toney’s) play," Penders said. "Eight rebounds, nine points; he was a presence inside both offensively and defensively."
A sellout crowd of 8,517 rocked Hofheinz as the Cougars made it one step closer to their NCAA Tournament dreams. Penders said if his team continues to see that kind of support, it will be going places.
"It’s great to have that kind of crowd support," Penders said. "I honestly feel that if we get that support, the sky’s the limit for this program. We’ve got to keep working real hard, myself included, to keep the people coming out."
