 won its third straight despite shooting 36% from the floor. Houston was 25 of 34 from the free throw line in a foul-filled game.''You're going to have games like this if you play 30-something games,'' Sampson said. ''We had a game like this early in the year against BYU and found a way to lose it. This one tonight, we found a way to win it.'' Christian Vital scored 14 points, and Isaiah Whaley added 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Huskies (10-8, 1-4), who lost their third straight. UConn shot 36%, including 4 of 16 from 3-point range. UConn was 15 of 23 from the line.UConn coach Dan Hurley said it was a tough loss.''We played so hard,'' Hurley said. ''We are developing an identity of grittiness and resilience and defensive mentality. A team toughness that right now is the one thing we can control.''Offensively, we struggled at the foul line a little bit, costly late game turnovers where we just put ourselves in bad spots. Then a couple of those finishes at the rim late, they made extraordinary blocks on. They just made some great plays.'' Trailing 50-44 with 5:15 left, Houston went on an 17-5 run and took a 61-55 lead on two free throws by Mills with 12 seconds left.Jalen Gaffney made a layup and two free throws after Jarreau was whistled for a technical, closing within 61-59 with seven seconds left. Temi Aiyegbusi missed a jumper with five seconds remaining, and Mills grabbed the rebound and sealed the win with two free throws with two seconds left.''We were trying to get Temi into that opposite corner and just hope that they would take that fourth defender and occupy him, but they did a great job of using those four guys to take away the three guys we had in action,'' Hurley said. ''They're smart. They didn't play Temi and funneled the ball his way.'' BIG PICTUREUConn: The Huskies fell to 1-4 against ranked teams, including losses in their last three games.Houston: The Cougars had their third-lowest scoring half of the season with 25 first-half points. Houston won the rebounding battle 42-33 and had just one second-chance point.FOUL TROUBLEHouston and UConn combined for 54 fouls, including 23 fouls in the first half. The UConn bench was whistled for a technical foul with 11:13 left in the second half. Gresham was also whistled for a technical foul, along with James Bouknight, with 5:56 left in the game.''You can't get personal as easy as it is to react,'' Sampson said of Jarreau's technical foul. ''We didn't curse back, but he didn't see the initiator, he saw the second guy. In defense of the refs, that's a hard game for the referees, as is most of our games.'' UP NEXTUConn: Hosts Tulsa on Sunday.Houston: Hosts South Florida on Sunday.---More college basketball: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/-Top25)
Jan 22, 2020Confirmation for Houston coach Kelvin Sampson that his program is restoring its prominence nationally is the fact the No. 25 Cougars now have been nationally ranked for three consecutive seasons.Saturday's upset victory at then-No. 16 Wichita State, forcing the Shockers to miss 18 straight shots in one 13-minute stretch, has placed the Cougars (14-4, 4-1 American Athletic Conference) into the rankings for the first time since the final poll last season.Sampson, who commented that his players "played like grown men," in the win over Wichita State, believes the Cougars are still in the maturation process, which will lead toward a higher ranking and a deeper run in the NCAA tournament."That means we've done it three straight years," Sampson told the Houston Chronicle. "It's pretty cool. I remember where we started, so I don't brush it off, but I don't dwell on it, either. I don't even remember if I mentioned it to the team. Our focus is on Connecticut on Thursday." Houston has won 12 of its last 14 games and is tied with Tulsa for first in the AAC. UConn (10-7, 1-3) visits Thursday after losing in a nonconference game at No. 9 Villanova on Saturday."Basketball season, you can't let it be an escalator," said Sampson, who had to replace four starters from last year's team that advanced to the Sweet 16. "You can't be going up and down. You've got to keep getting better, and that's all I've tried to focus on since Day 1. I don't dwell on the losses. I just focus on how we are playing and make sure we are getting better." Shortly after limiting Wichita State to a season-low 30.4 percent shooting from the field in the 65-54 win, Sampson wrote on the board in the locker room: "UConn ... Thursday ... 8 o'clock." He said he "already moved on." Only two of Sampson's players -- Nate Hinton and Fabian White Jr. -- have played in all 18 games as he has coached through injuries while experimenting with player combinations. Hinton averages 11.6 points and 9.7 rebounds a game and is the Cougars' top 3-point shooter at 40.5 percent. White is at 10.9 points and 5.7 rebounds a game.Quentin Grimes leads the Cougars with 12.8 points per game but has struggled from beyond the arc at 29.3 percent.UConn showed improvement in its 61-55 loss at Villanova after losing by 23 points to the Wildcats last year and by 20 the year before."I saw a lot of growth since the last time we saw these guys," said UConn coach Dan Hurley, whose team has lost four games by six points or fewer, including two games in double overtime. "But it's a frustrated locker room because that game was on the table for us." UConn outscored Villanova 36-12 in the paint and outrebounded the Wildcats 35-23 but Villanova hit 11 three-pointers and scored 23 points off Huskies turnovers.Senior Christian Vital led the Huskies with 13 points and led all rebounders with eight, while junior Josh Carlton had 12 points, and redshirt junior Alterique Gilbert had 12 points and five assists.--Field Level Media
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