Houston forward J’wan Roberts down on court after being poked in the eye in the first game of the Players Era Festival. | Oscar Herrera/The Cougar
The Cougars fell to San Diego State 73-70 in a hard fought overtime battle in their final game of the Players Era Festival.
A late free throw by freshman forward Magoon Gwath gave the Aztecs a three point lead with only seven seconds left.
Houston’s senior guard L.J. Cryer had a chance to tie with a deep three-pointer, but the shot was off the mark and San Diego State pulled off an upset victory.
The Aztecs started out on a quick 6-0 run and took advantage of Houston’s four turnovers and their 0-7 start from the field.
Later in the half, redshirt junior guard Emanuel Sharp made five straight free-throw attempts to even the score at 12.
He continued his hot start with 10 straight points as he splashed a deep three-pointer to give Houston a 17-12 lead.
Both teams showed strong defense and matched each other’s intensity as the Cougars led San Diego State 30-25 at halftime.
Houston led the entire second half until Miles Bird made two free throws with 13 seconds in regulation to tie the score at 65.
Sharp got a last-second jumper off, but it was no good and the Aztecs forced overtime.
Senior guard Nick Boyd did it all for San Diego State tonight. He recorded 12 points, seven rebounds and six assists and came up clutch in overtime for the Aztecs.
Sophomore guard Miles Byrd and senior forward Jared Coleman-Jones also came up big as they combined for 34 points, 11 boards and three assists.
Freshman Forward Pharaoh Compton had an efficient night off the bench with 13 points on 6/11 shooting in 22 minutes of play.
Houston’s offense continued to struggle tonight, shooting only 37.1% from the field. They shot better from three, shooting 45.8% making 11 of 24 attempts.
Sharp and Cryer made the biggest offensive impact for the Cougars. Sharp scored 23 points and shot 4-8 from three. Cryer scored 21 points on 7-15 shooting and recorded two rebounds and a pair of assists.
Even though this is not the outcome UH wanted, in the games that they lost the Cougars had the lead in the last seconds of the game.
“We had two chances to win it,” coach Kelvin Sampson said. “Same thing against Alabama, we had a shot to win that one too.”
With the loss, Houston finished fourth in the tournament and earned an extra $1.1 million towards their NIL collective.
The Cougars will look to get back on track on Saturday, Dec. 7, when they take on Butler at the Fertitta Center in the Big 12-Big East battle.
