Houston had its 69-47 win against Southern Methodist wrapped up as soon as senior forward Dion Dowell stole the opening tip Saturday at Hofheinz Pavilion.
The Cougars (19-5, 8-2 Conference USA) started the game by scoring the first eight points and forcing the Mustangs (8-15, 2-8 C-USA) into four turnovers in the first four minutes by pressing SMU.
The Mustangs’ first basket came more than five minutes into the game as junior center Bamba Fall’s hook shot off the glass made it 8-2. That would be the closest SMU would get.
The Cougars finished the first half outscoring SMU 41-18, largely because of good team defense and tremendous three-point shooting by all players.
Houston dialed in from the field in the first half, connecting on 12-of-27 shooting and hitting 10-of-23 from beyond the arc.
The Cougars hurled up 43 three-point attempts for the game, setting a Hofheinz Pavilion record – the previous record was 40 attempts on Feb. 14, 2007 against South Alabama.
Houston finished the game shooting 40 percent, making 22-of-55 shots, and nailing 42 percent of its three-point attempts.
"Coming into the game, we talked about bringing their big guys (outside the paint) and driving," head coach Tom Penders said. "But, they started off in a box-in-one (defense). They were playing (senior guard) Robert McKiver man-to-man and the other four guys were in a diamond-shaped zone, which left both corners open. We did a good job of getting the ball to the corners and getting off to a good start."
Penders said senior guard Lanny Smith asked to come off the bench and McKiver started in place for Smith.
McKiver distributed the ball early on and found his shooting rhythm on the way. He connected on 6-of-11 beyond the arc, hitting his first four three-point attempts in the second half. McKiver finished with a game-high 21 points and seven assists."I think the reason why was because I was trying to get my teammates involved early, and I think that’s why I was so successful (hitting my shots)," McKiver said. "Our team is the reason why I get off my shots. They set good screens and they (play) good, so I think that was why I was getting off good shots."
Houston kept senior guard Jon Killen, SMU’s leading scorer averaging 12.4 points-per-game, in check. Killen finished the game with three points off of 1-of-6 shooting and limiting his range to only three-point shots.
The Cougars’ defense clamped down SMU, limiting the Mustangs to 35 percent from the field and forcing 17 turnovers.
"Coach really wanted us to put pressure on them and keep them in front of us and make them make decisions with the ball," sophomore guard Kelvin Lewis said. "We wanted them to turn it over and they turned it over."
The game wasn’t without mistakes for the Cougars. Houston looked a little sloppy to start the second half. Other than McKiver drilling his first four shots, the Cougars turned the ball over five times in the first five minutes.
"It wasn’t that we weren’t focused," Lewis said. "We just had some mental lapses. But we regrouped and made the right decisions and we pulled it out."
Lewis finished with 11 points and two steals, going 4-of-11 from the field and hitting three three-pointers.
Senior guard Marcus Malone also had a nice game. Malone connected on his first two three-point shots in the first half and finished the game with 9 points. Malone played only one minute in the 68-59 loss to Memphis, and Penders said he was pleased by his performance Saturday.
"I was happy for Marcus Malone, because he’s been struggling," Penders said. "When you go to Memphis, you can’t afford to have him struggle. I didn’t play him much, so it’s good to see him bounce back.
"You preach that. Never give up on yourself. Keep your confidence level high. Keep practicing. He’s a great kid. Hopefully he’ll regain some confidence because we’re going to need him."
With the game all but won, Penders experimented with his lineup going with more of a man-to-man defense. Penders said it was nice to see some of the younger players such as freshman forwards Yan Moukoury and Horace McGloster play.
"I wanted to play some of the younger kids," he said. "This isn’t football where you get votes in the polls for beating a team badly. We wanted to play a lot of different people and we took off the pressure a little bit. We played straight man-to-man in the second half, which we haven’t played a lot of. It’s good to be able to work on that, because we’ve been playing mainly a combination man-zone and trap and rotate."
Houston’s next game will be against Alabama-Birmingham on Wednesday in Alabama. The matchup will have strong significance, as the Blazers are one game behind UH in C-USA standings. UAB nearly ended Memphis’ perfect season Saturday, losing 79-78 in the final seconds.
