, who have won 10 of their last 12.''This was a perfect situation for us,'' Gray said. ''We had been winning a lot of home games, and this is tournament basketball. This is what we have been preparing for.'' Devin Davis added 12 points for Houston, which shot 45 percent from the field and hit 8 of 20 from behind the arc. The Cougars finished 15-0 at home, the first time Houston has done that since 1983-84.Jalen Adams had 22 points and six assists, Terry Larrier added 19 points and seven rebounds, and Christian Vital had 11 points for UConn (14-17, 7-11), which has lost three of its last four. The Huskies shot 51 percent from the field, including 55 percent in the first half.''We didn't get Rob Gray under control,'' Adams said. ''On the defensive end, we have to get him under control and maybe force the ball out of his hands and make someone else make a shot.'' Trailing 65-63, Gray hit a free throw to cut the lead to one before hitting a reverse layup and a free throw after getting fouled to give Houston a two-point lead. Following a free throw by Antwoine Anderson, Gray hit a 3-pointer from 25 feet to give the Cougars a four-point lead with four minutes left.The teams traded points before Vital hit a free throw with 2:53 left to cut the lead to 72-69. After Adams missed a jumper, Gray hit two free throws with 1:46 left to increase Houston's lead to five. Adams missed two free throws next time down the floor, and Fabian White Jr. connected on two free throws with 1:13 left to push the Cougars' lead to seven.''It came down to a five-minute game,'' UConn coach Kevin Ollie said. ''That's what we wanted to put ourselves in, but we didn't execute the defensive schemes.'' Sampson said he told Gray to take the game over.''The good players have another level to them,'' Sampson said. ''Rob was on the third or fourth floor today and then all of a sudden he jumped to the tenth floor. When he did that, the game changed for us.'' That would be as close as the Huskies would get.UConn led 38-37 at the half. Houston led by as many as 13 at 22-9 with 13 minutes left in the half, but the Huskies outscored the Cougars 10-2 to end the half as Adams scored the last five points.BIG PICTUREUConn: The Huskies hung with the Cougars for most of the contest and held a one-point lead with five minutes left, but could not hold on. UConn struggled from the field late in the second half, connecting on two field goals in the last 11 minutes, and from the free-throw line in the second half, missing seven free throws.Houston: The Cougars continued to strengthen their NCAA Tournament resume. Houston hit 23 of 30 from the free-throw line in the second half and used strong defense to pull out the win. The Cougars forced 14 turnovers and turned those into 18 points. Houston out-rebounded the Huskies 35-27.SENIOR DAYHouston honored Gray, Devin Davis, guard Wes VanBeck and forward Nura Zanna on senior day. Gray is 10th in school history with 1,581 points, trailing Greg Anderson by 81 points for ninth.ROCKETS IN THE BUILDINGHouston Rockets guards James Harden and Eric Gordon sat courtside opposite the Cougars' bench. Sampson coached Gordon at Indiana, and Sampson was an assistant with Harden's Rockets before taking the Cougars' coaching job.UP NEXTUConn starts the AAC Tournament in Orlando on Thursday.Houston earned the third seed and a first-round bye in the AAC Tournament and will begin play in Friday's quarterfinals.---More college basketball: https://collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/-Top25)
Mar 03, 2018 No. 25 Houston can end the regular season undefeated at "home" it squares off against Connecticut on Sunday in American Athletic Conference play at Texas Southern University's H&PE Arena, the Cougars' home away from home this season.Houston (23-6, 13-4 AAC play) can finish second with a win and no lower than third no matter the result of Sunday's game, a seeding that will allow it to miss the first day of play in the AAC tournament, which begins Thursday at the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla."It doesn't matter to me whether we're a two seed or a three seed," Houston coach Kelvin Samson said. ''We've beaten everybody in this league. If you want to cut down the nets, you've got to win three games in the tournament.'' The Cougars have won seven of eight games, including a 69-56 victory at injury-plagued SMU on Wednesday.Rob Gray had 19 points and nine assists and Corey Davis Jr. added 17 points for Houston, which set the tone for the win with a defensive showcase in the first half that forced SMU into 11 consecutive missed shots over a pivotal stretch.Houston led by as many as 18 points in the second half and has been dominant over the past month, save for a rare poor shooting game in a loss to Memphis two weeks ago."It's a good road win," Sampson said after Wednesday's victory. "Now we have a chance to finish undefeated at home and continue to build momentum for the postseason." With a win against the Huskies, Houston will complete an undefeated season at home for the first time since the 1983-84 team went 15-0.UConn (14-16, 7-10) heads to the Bayou City to complete a disappointing regular season on the heels of a 72-66 home win over Temple on Wednesday. Sunday's game at Houston will be the eighth the Huskies have played against a ranked team this season."As a team, we just had a lot of energy and played hard on defense," Huskies forward Mamadou Diarra said. "We just got it done tonight. A win always builds momentum. We're just going to see what we did wrong in the game, see what we can fix from that and the good things we did, continue to do that as well and just grow from there." Jalen Adams scored 25 points and recorded eight assists and Terry Larrier added 13 points for the Huskies, who canned 11 3-pointers in snapping a two-game losing streak."Winning this game was really important, especially heading out to Houston," UConn guard Antwoine Anderson said. "We just want to have momentum and just show everybody the team that we actually are instead of what we've been displaying. I think this really helped us." UConn is in eighth place in the AAC standings, one game above SMU and one game back of UCF. If things hold up this weekend, the Huskies will play the Mustangs in the first round of the conference tournament on Thursday.It is the only meeting of the season between UConn and Houston. The all-time series is tied 5-5.
Looking for More Picks?
You can browse all the individual handicapper picks below.
Connecticut
Houston
Pick Center
NCAAB
FINAL (3/4/2018)
ProfessorsPicks
