It showed during Houston’s 92-81 win over Tulsa on Wednesday – it’s that time of the season. The Cougars are ready to go on that stretch, closing out the regular season on the kind of streak where they win seven or eight of their final nine games as they fight to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive.
The only difference between this year’s team and Houston head coach Tom Penders’ first four teams: today’s Cougars are not on the outside looking in.
With the win, UH improved to 17-4 overall and 7-1 in Conference USA, only second to Memphis (20-0, 7-0). Senior guard Lanny Smith, who finished the night with 11 points and a team-high five assists, said he can feel the team chemistry setting in, and at this point in the season that can make the Cougars dangerous.
"We’re starting to get on that roll," Smith said. "Our team chemistry is great right now. We’re taking care of business, and everybody is focused. It’s a great thing. Hopefully we get this rolling going into Memphis."
Senior guard Robert "Fluff" McKiver finished with 33 points, marking his second consecutive 30-plus point game.
McKiver caught fire in the first half and didn’t cool down until he felt he had caused enough damage to the Tulsa roster. He shot 8-of-13 from the floor and sent a hailstorm of 3-pointers Tulsa’s way, knocking down 6-of-8. He finished the first half with 26 points, a career high for a half, and capped it off in grand fashion. He used a shake-and-bake move to cross over Tulsa senior guard Brett McDade and pulled up to drain the three as time expired in the first half.
"Fluff is Fluff. He’s going to knock down his shots regardless," senior forward Tafari Toney said. "He’s one of those guys that might not be good in the first half but will come in the second half and give you 25. It’s not a surprise when he knocks down his shots like that."
Riding the efforts of Toney and McKiver, the Cougars pulled away from the Golden Hurricane in the first half. The two combined to score all the points during a four-minute, 19-8 run that ended in a McKiver shot from downtown to give Houston a 21-12 lead with 12:13 remaining in the first half.
Toney finished the game with 13 points and five rebounds, but they don’t tell the whole story. The 6-9 forward deflected passes and altered shots on the way to helping Houston rack up the 11-point victory.
"We know on every game the other team is going to focus in on stopping the guards," Smith said. "Having the inside presence like that makes it so that when they do focus in on the guards, we have other options."
Smith continually found ways to feed Toney in the paint, and at times it looked as though he was toying with Tulsa’s guards. He said he’s finally getting to the point where he feels comfortable on the floor after his foot and ankle injuries.
Penders said he was also pleased with the way Smith ran the offense.
"Between Lanny and (freshman guard) Zamal (Nixon), I really love our point position…. Lanny’s a better defensive player and is better at getting us into our sets and executing our half-court stuff," Penders said. "We executed our offense extremely well tonight against a team that’s known as a defensive team. Memphis only scored 56 points against these guys."
Freshman forward Horace McGloster made the most of his time off the bench in the second half. He and junior guard DaShaun Williams made Tulsa pay for one of its 21 turnovers in the most demoralizing way. On the fast break, he caught an alley-oop from Williams off the backboard and smashed it over Golden Hurricane defender freshman guard Justin Hurtt to extend Houston’s lead to 67-52 with 12:54 remaining in the game.
