No. 14 Houston held off the second half surge by Louisiana to get the 71-56 win Tuesday night at the Fertitta Center, despite not having Marcus Sasser, Tramon Mark and Reggie Chaney.
The Cougars got off to a solid start early in the first half, forcing four turnovers in the first five minutes of the game that included two shot clock violations as they jumped out to a 6-0 lead early.
Louisiana didn’t find the basket until the 15:20 mark in the first half, which is when the Ragin’ Cajuns came back with a pair of threes to tie things up early after the first timeout.
The Cougars then answered by going on a 12-4 run led by graduate guard Taze Moore and senior guard Kyler Edwards to put UH up 25-15 with a little over seven minutes to play in the first half.
Edwards and Moore had 10 points each by halftime. Moore also led the team in rebounds as well with eight in the half.
The UH defense was a force in the first half, the Cougars held Louisiana to just 31 percent shooting from the field and forced 12 turnovers which included several shot clock violations.
The Cougars big first half run put them up 41-23 going into the locker room.
The second half was a back-and-forth battle to start, but the Cougars found themselves unable to score in the second half and Louisiana brought the lead down to 11 points roughly halfway through the final period.
Two 3-pointers and a lay-up made for a quick 8-0 run by the Ragin’ Cajuns to then cut the lead to just seven with just over seven minutes to go in the second half.
The Cougars continued to have trouble finding the basket until late in the second half, they went on a 12-2 run to close out the game and get the bounce-back win.
All five Cougar starters were in double digit points.
Graduate forward Josh Carlton led all scorers with 17 points and Moore finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds to give him a double-double for the night.
Sophomore guard Jamal Shead had 16 points to go with five rebounds and five assists as well on the night.