The lid that was wide open in the first half was pressure sealed and welded shut for the Cougars in the second, leading to a 68-59 loss to No. 1 Memphis on Wednesday at FedEx Forum.
Houston entered the second half with a 37-35 lead over the Associated Press Poll’s top-ranked squad, thanks to a scorching-hot performance from senior guard Robert McKiver from behind the arc. He knocked down 4-of-8 shots from well behind NBA three-point range in the first half to give the Cougars the advantage.
Memphis, however, pushed up its defensive line and crowded Houston’s leading scorer whenever he so much as sniffed the ball in the second half. That adjustment on the defensive end, combined with a four-minute-five-second run by the Tigers to crush the Cougars’ out of the gates in the second half left Houston fighting to keep the score within single digits. McKiver ended the night with a team-high 21 points and five rebounds.
"We said that we wanted to keep our focus and keep our intensity level up (after the first half)," McKiver said. "But those guys went on a run, and we were never really able to get back into the game. They shot a lot of free throws and kind of slowed down our momentum and savvy on offense, as far as the way we like to push it and get stops on defense."
Memphis head coach John Calipari said he wasn’t surprised by Houston’s ability to take charge in the first half and give his team a run for its money. Calipari told Penders before and after the game that he felt Houston was an NCAA Tournament-caliber team, and he knew it was going to be fighting for its spot in the Big Dance.
"This was exactly the type of game that we needed to play," Calipari said. "Everybody said to me, ‘Did you go crazy at halftime?’ I really didn’t raise my voice. If I have to raise my voice at this time of the year at halftime, then we’re petering out.
"I went in and I just said, ‘This is what we needed. You’re talking about a team that is playing for their lives; they out-scraped us, out-rebounded us and made a few shots… we’re at halftime of the NCAA Tournament, let’s see how we perform.’"
His team responded.
The Cougars started the second half off by shooting 1-for-11 from the field and would not get any offensive rhythm going after freshman guard Zamal Nixon kissed a layup off the glass with 13:56 remaining to cut Houston’s deficit to give points at 44-49. Nixon would drain a 3 about two minutes later to put the score at 56-52, but 4 points would be as close as the Cougars would get for the rest of the game.
Riding the efforts of Memphis junior guard Chris Douglas-Roberts, who hit up Houston for 22 points and six rebounds on an 8-of-10 night from the free-throw line, Memphis bullied its way to another victory in Conference USA.
The Tigers remained the only unbeaten team in the nation at 24-0 and improved their conference tally to 10 wins. The Cougars fell to 18-5 and now have a 7-2 record in C-USA, which puts them in a tie with Alabama-Birmingham for second place.
Houston head coach Tom Penders said he felt like his team could play with Memphis, but he knew the game wasn’t going to be handed to it.
"They never will take us lightly. They get up for us, and they play hard, and they play well. We always bring out their ‘A’ game," Penders said.
"Our kids played hard…. We felt like if we could be within 4 in the last two minutes, we’d have a shot to steal it, but we couldn’t quite break that barrier."
