After losses to Stanford and Texas Tech in the Progressive Legends Classic, UH got back on the winning track by defeating Texas A&M Corpus Christi 78-67 on Saturday at Hofheinz Pavilion.
The Cougars trailed before halftime, but a 49-point second half propelled them to the double-digit victory. UH was without sophomore forward Danuel House, who missed a game for the first time in his collegiate career with a lower leg injury.
House will be reevaluated early this week and his status going forward will be determined.
Head coach James Dickey said the Cougars corralled the slow start with their deep bench.
“We weren’t very efficient in the first half. We got down and didn’t have a lot of energy,” Dickey said. “We finally got it going with our defense in the second half. Some of the guys off the bench really helped us. Danrad (Knowles) came in and did a terrific job off the bench. That’s what we need. One of our strengths is numbers.”
UH’s balanced offensive scoring helped the team rally. Junior forward TaShawn Thomas led the Cougars with 14 points and shot 7-of-8 from the field, but five players reached double figures in scoring.
“I was just trying to bring the energy,” said sophomore forward Knowles, who provided 13 points off the bench. “We were down two at half, and Coach told us to come out hard. Everybody did their job off the bench. We lost two games back-to-back in Brooklyn, so we were hungry for this win.”