Houston cruises in NCAA opener; Baylor, Tech, N. Texas also win.
Cougars roll after Jarreau hurts his hip
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Fortyone seconds into Friday’s NCAA Tournament opener, DeJon Jarreau sat on the bench as trainers looked at his injured hip.
Not exactly the way for the University of Houston to begin a possible Final Four run.
The second-seeded Cougars regrouped without one of their top players and crushed 15th-seeded Cleveland State 87-56 victory at Assembly Hall.
UH (25-3) will face 10th-seeded Rutgers, which beat seventhseeded Clemson 60-56, in the second round of the Midwest Regional on Sunday.
The path will only get tougher for the Cougars, who are seeking a second straight trip to the Sweet Sixteen. Jarreau, a 6-foot-5 senior guard whom coach Kelvin Sampson calls “indispensable,” did not
return after taking an elbow to his right hip on the game’s second possession.
Jarreau suffered a hip pointer, coach Kelvin Sampson said after the game, and his status for the round of 32 is uncertain.
“Our kids were a little bit nervy, maybe staggered even when Dejon went down,” Sampson said. “He’s not only our starting point guard but our emotional leader, our leader on the floor. He does a lot of things for this team.”
Sampson earned the 664th win of his career, moving past John Wooden into No. 38 on the all-time list. He picked up the victory in his first game at Assembly Hall since resigning as Indiana’s coach in 2008.
The Cougars looked out of sync most of the first half and appeared to need time to adjust to the cavernous arena with several badly missed 3-pointers (3 of 14) in the first half. Another problem: Tramon Mark, who was inserted for Jarreau, picked up two fouls and played only five minutes in the first half. That forced Sampson to go to his bench earlier than usual, with freshman Jamal Shead and Cameron Tyson getting extended play.
“Marcus (Sasser) and Quentin (Grimes) have been the recipients of a lot of DeJon assists and, all of a sudden, they become the primary ballhandlers,” Sampson said. “We had to switch midstream and change things up. We came
out more organized (in the second half ).”
Cleveland State (19-8), winner of the Horizon League, kept things close in the first half. D’Moi Hodge hit back-to-back 3-pointers to pull the Vikings to within 25-22, and Deante Johnson later added a dunk off a miss to close within 27-24.
Ahead 37-29 at halftime, UH took control immediately with a 27-6 run. Cleveland State struggled to match UH’s physical style and had just one field goal during the opening 10 minutes of the second half.
“Coach Sampson emphasized the first five minutes of the second half
would be the most important,” Grimes said.
Part of the second-half adjustments for UH was to find ways to get Mark, a 6-5 freshman guard, open. Sampson called for plays to set up Mark on the right side so he could get back to his left hand. If Cleveland State attempted to cut off,
Mark could go to his pull-up game or drive to the basket. He scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half.
“We’re fortunate that when DeJon went down, we had a guy that could go get us 15 points,” Sampson said of Mark.
Grimes, who was named a third-team All-American this week, had a game-high 18 points — including 4-of-8 shooting from 3-point range — to lead six Cougars in double figures.
“It shows how many different weapons we have,” Grimes said. “Everybody kind of stepped up and took on a little more.”
After Grimes hit a 3pointer during the Cougars’ decisive run to begin the second half, TV cameras caught Jarreau waving a towel on the bench. During a timeout, Jarreau offered advice to Mark and freshman Jamal Shead. At the end of the game, Jarreau gathered the entire team in the huddle.
“Everybody knows Dejon is our leader; he’s our connector,” Grimes said. “He’s our coach on the floor.”
Sampson praised the performance of his frontcourt, with Fabian White Jr. (12), Justin Gorham (10) and Brison Gresham (10) all finishing in double figures. Reggie Chaney had six points, seven rebounds and four blocks. The four went a combined 12 of 14 from the free-throw line.
Hodge had 11 points and Torrey Patton added eight points for the Vikings, who were held to five field goals and 26.3-percent shooting in the second half. It wasn’t nearly enough as the Vikings were unable to duplicate any of the magic from the school’s previous two trips to the NCAA Tournament — a run to the Sweet Sixteen in 1986 and opening round upset of fourthranked Wake Forest in 2009.
“That’s a one seed, I’m telling you,” Vikings coach Dennis Gates said. “They can score the basketball in every which way possible.”
As for Jarreau’s status, Sampson did not sound optimistic that he would be available Sunday.
“DeJon’s not a real meaty guy anyway,” Sampson said. “He’s kind of bony. A hip pointer for him is going to be a little bit more serious than say for me or you.”
On a day No. 2 seed Ohio State was upset by No. 15 seed Oral Roberts, the Cougars are just happy to move on.
“It was a good win,” Sampson said. “This tournament is about win and advance.”