Five players scored in double figures to lead the Cougars to an 85-76 victory over SMU in the opening round of the Conference USA Tournament on Wednesday at FedExForum in Memphis, Tenn.
The Cougars (20-10) received the type of contributions from the starting lineup they will need if they want to win the tournament.
‘For us, this is (win) No. 20 for the season, which was one of our goals,’ UH head coach Tom Penders said. ‘We got that, so we have an opportunity to move on. It’s always about survive, win and move on.’
Guard Aubrey Coleman led all scorers and rebounders with 20 points and 14 boards. Forward Qa’rraan Calhoun chipped in 18 points and seven rebounds and guard Kelvin Lewis had 14 points. Point guard Zamal Nixon added 17 points and five assists, while center Marcus Cousin put up 14 points and eight rebounds.
Calhoun recognized how important it was for UH to receive a great effort from multiple players.
‘It’s very important,’ Calhoun said. ‘If we get everybody scoring and playing defense, we can go far.’
UH held its biggest lead of the game, 47-34, with 18:57 left in the game before the Mustangs went on an 11-3 run to crawl within 50-45 with 15:57 remaining. Mustang forward Mouhammad Faye had a chance to cut the deficit to three, but missed a point-blank layup.
SMU (9-21) was unable to gain any more ground, despite pulling within 6 points on numerous occasions.
The biggest burst of the final 10 minutes came when Coleman scored five straight points to give the Cougars their first double-digit lead, 77-66, since they were up 50-39 with 17:27 left to play.
Coleman came up big again when he stole the ball from Mustang guard Derek Williams, who led SMU with 18 points, and took it the length of the court for a game-finishing dunk that gave UH a 79-68 lead with 2:56 remaining. The Cougars killed any changes of a Mustangs’ miracle by making four free throws and keeping SMU from scoring quickly.
The win advances the Cougars to the quarterfinals of the C-USA Tournament, where they will face Texas-El Paso at 8:30 p.m. tonight.
Cousin set the tone at the beginning of the game by relentlessly attacking the glass. He had 7 points and five rebounds after draining a jumper that gave UH an 18-7 lead with 14:25 left in the first half. The jumper came after Cousin willed his way to a rebound off his own missed shot.
The Mustangs got back into the game with an 11-2 run, capped by a Robert Nyakundi 3-pointer with 10:24 before the break, that cut SMU’s deficit to 20-18.
The Cougars continued to dominate the boards, leading to a 10-3 run that pushed their lead to 30-21 with 4:54 remaining until halftime. Calhoun finished the run with a nasty throw-down off a brilliant lob from Nixon.
UH entered halftime with a 41-30 lead, holding a 25-13 advantage on the glass. Fifteen of those rebounds came on the offensive end, leading to 16 more shot opportunities. This also led to UH’s 18-2 advantage in second-chance points.
Now the focus shifts to UTEP. The teams split the season series, but Penders said his team will be in for a battle.
‘We know (UTEP) and they know us, Hopefully it’s another great game.’