Senior Corey Davis Jr. led the team in scoring as Houston held on to win its rematch against Temple. | Ahmed Gul/ The Cougar
Earlier this year, the UH men’s basketball team took its only loss of the season to the Temple Owls. A few weeks later the Cougars got revenge with a 73-66 win versus the Owls.
Senior guard Corey Davis Jr. led the Cougars in scoring with 24 points, and redshirt sophomore guard DeJon Jarreau had a double-double to help prevent the Cougars from being swept by the Owls this season.
The Cougars started the game slow as their first possession ended in a turnover immediately after tipoff. The team also did not hit double-digit points until nearly seven minutes after the game started.
Junior guard Armoni Brooks came out of the game early after picking up two fouls. He did not return until the second half. He had a quiet game and finished with only three points in three attempts.
The Cougars were also sloppy in terms of keeping the ball. UH lost the ball six times in the first half and finished the game with 11 total turnovers.
After the slow start, both teams started picking up the effort on both sides of the ball. During one stretch, senior guard Galen Robinson Jr. blocked a three-point attempt then scored a three-pointer of his own on the next possession.
After a tight battle for most of the first half, the Cougars used a run to take a 35-29 lead into halftime.
After the break, it was more of the same until UH used another run to take its first double-digit lead of the game. UH built up one more double-digit lead, but Temple cut the lead down to seven with less than two minutes left in the game.
Last time Temple and UH met, Davis Jr. scored a layup to send the game to overtime but had his points taken away because of a charge call. This time, Davis Jr. made sure to end the game by making all of his free throws in the clutch to put it away.
With the win the Cougars remain perfect at home and go to an 8-1 conference record. UH’s next games are against the teams directly behind it in the conference standings. The Cougars go on the road to play UCF Thursday, Feb. 7 and return home to play Cincinnati the following Sunday.
