The Houston Cougars, for the most part, took care of the basketball and hit their foul shots, shoring up their two major weaknesses so far this season. But instead of rolling to an easy victory, they shot just 34.8% from the floor and dropped a heartbreaker to the Roadrunners, 68-63.
Sophomore foward Kendrick Washington was sent to the line with 19 seconds left and the Cougars down 2. He missed both free throws. Although the Coogs were able to get another crack at it when UTSA forward Stephen Franklin went 1-2 at the stripe, Darian Thiboudeaux missed a tying three point chance and the Roadrunners grabbed the rebound and the win.
Thibodeaux, Kirk Van Slyke, and Adam Brown combined to shoot just 7-for-28 from the floor. The Cougars had no answer for reserve forward Jeromie Hill, who had 15 points in just 20 minutes for UTSA. Houston’s Maurice McNeil led all scorers with 26, but needed 20 shots to get those points.
Houston saw it’s 9 game home winning streak, which dated back to last year, end. Their next game will be Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, in Corpus. next Saturday.