Strong defense powers Cougars to upset
WICHITA. Kan. — It was the type of validating victory that made University of Houston coach Kelvin Sampson get a bit reflective.
After the Cougars emphatically took down No. 16 Wichita State 6554 on Saturday, Sampson thought back to this season’s origins.
“I could see in November where we were going to be pretty good, but we weren’t very good in November,” he said. “And then I could see in December again where we were going to be pretty good.”
UH (14-4, 4-1 American Athletic Conference) built a 49-27 lead early in the second half behind balanced scoring and a clinical defense. Fabian White scored 14 points to lead the Cougars, and DeJon Jarreau had 12 points and 10 rebounds. Marcus Sasser and Quentin Grimes scored 10 each for Houston.
But holding Wichita State (15-3, 3-2) to 22 points below its average and just one double-digit scorer — Tyson Etienne with 10 — was the Cougars’ biggest achievement.
“We did a really good job on their shooters,” Jarreau said. “I thought we just played to our culture, rebounding a defense.”
It started right away as the Cougars led 35-25 at halftime, allowing the Shockers to make just four of 18 shots inside the 3-point arc.
“Today, they came in and just manhandled our team,” Shockers coach Gregg Marshall said. “Manhandled us.”
UH blew things open in the first seven minutes of the second half, leading 49-27 after Brison Gresham’s dunk with 12:56 left.
“When someone broke down defensively, someone was there to cover for them,” Sampson said. “When we doubled in the post, we were ready behind the double team. It was just great team defense.”
UH hosts UConn on Thursday.