No. 6 Houston got upset by the SMU Mustangs 85-83 Wednesday night, ending the Cougars’ 12 game win streak, suffering its first loss in conference play. | Sean Thomas/The Cougar
SMU snapped No. 6 Houston’s 12 game win streak and handed the Cougars their first loss in American Athletic Conference play, as UH fell 85-83 to the Mustangs on Wednesday night inside Moody Coliseum in Dallas.
The Cougars got things going early with a quick 10-0 run behind back-to-back threes from both graduate forward Fabian White Jr. and graduate guard Taze Moore.
UH knocked down all three of its 3-point attempts to jump out to a quick 16-5 lead over the Mustangs just over four minutes into the game.
All of the Cougars’ first seven baskets were assisted on.
But the SMU offense was relentless, quickly going on a 10-2 run after trading baskets with the Cougars to trim the lead down to just three.
UH answered with a run of its own to take the lead back to double digits with 11:42 to play in the half.
Both sides continued to trade buckets, the lead bounced between single and double digits for the next six minutes before the Cougars were able to get the lead up to 15 points and pull away some more.
A pair of 3’s for the Mustangs brought it back to single digits again shortly after however.
The back-and-forth continued some more late into the first half, but a pair of dunks from graduate forward Josh Carlton sent the Cougars into the locker rooms up 51-40.
Moore led all scorers at the half with 15 points.
UH continued to excel offensively to keep the lead above 10, but struggled to put together stops on defense and continued allowing the Mustangs to trim any large lead they were able to gain.
SMU didn’t cut the lead to under single digits until the 10:32 mark in the second half, as a 12-1 run led by senior guard Michael Weathers trimmed the Cougar lead down to just two points with just under eight minutes to play.
With just 3:33 to play, the Mustangs finally took the lead for the first time in the game at 76-75.
SMU kept its foot on the gas and got the lead up to four points in what was a 12-2 run.
Sophomore guard Jamal Shead knocked down a clutch basket with 44.5 seconds left in the game but committed a costly foul seconds later that gave the Mustangs free throws to retake the lead with 40 seconds to play.
Despite misses from Moore and Edwards with under 30 seconds to play, the Cougars still had a chance to tie down three points due to troubles at the free throw line from SMU.
With just two seconds left, Edwards was fouled on a 3-pointer and had a final chance to tie, but came up short on the first free throw and the Mustangs secured the upset victory over UH.
Shead finished with a double-double with 14 points and 12 assists, Moore only managed two points in the second half after scoring 15 in the first.
Edwards finished with 17 points, four rebounds and four assists for the night.
