Houston surprises Shockers in semis
Cougars will play Cincinnati for AAC championship today
Orlando, Fla. — Rob Gray had a key steal and scored 33 points, including two free throws with 5 seconds remaining, as No. 21 Houston held off Wichita State 77-74 in an American Athletic Conference tournament semifinal on Saturday.
Corey Davis Jr. scored 19 points for the Cougars (26-6), who advanced to play No. 8 Cincinnati in today's championship game.
Houston led by as many as nine points in the first half before the lead changed hands or was tied eight times in the final seven minutes.
With the Cougars trailing 74-73, Gray intercepted a pass near midcourt and drove to the basket, handing off to Galen Robinson for a layup with 1:27 remaining. Houston sealed the victory when Robinson intercepted an in-bounds pass with 5 seconds left and a foul by the Shockers sent Gray to the freethrow line.
Landry Shamet led Wichita State (25-7) with 19 points while Shaquille Morris had 12, including 10 in the final seven minutes to keep the game close. Rashard Kelly and Austin Reaves each scored 10.
After trailing almost the entire game, Wichita State tied the score at 54 on a 3-pointer by Shamet with 9:37 remaining. Kelly gave Wichita State its first lead, 60-59, since the opening minutes.
The Shockers, who came into the game averaging 83.3 points per game, were cold in the first half, when they shot just 27 percent (8 of 30) from the field.
Davis sparked Houston early by scoring eight consecutive points, allowing the Cougars to open a 20-11 lead. The led 37-31 at halftime. Cincinnati 70, Memphis 60 For the second straight day, No. 8 Cincinnati struggled but survived.
Coach Mick Cronin hopes that with the NCAA tournament just a few days away, his players have learned their lesson.
“Hopefully, we learned a lesson that the other team — no matter their record or their situation — is coming to win,” Cronin said after the top-seeded Bearcats rallied to beat Memphis. “I think we were in shock that (Memphis) actually came out with confidence and wasn't afraid of us.
“That's going to be the same next week.”
Jarron Cumberland scored 18 points and Gary Clark had 17 points and 12 rebounds to help Cincinnati rally from a 13-point halftime deficit against Memphis, a day after the Bearcats overcame a sixpoint second-half deficit to beat SMU in the quarterfinals. Kyle Washington added 11 for the Bearcats.
Jamal Johnson led Memphis with 17 points, but he didn't score in the second half, when the Tigers wilted under intense defensive pressure from Cincinnati. Kyvon Davenport had 12 points and 11 rebounds for Memphis (21-13), which shot 51.9 percent in the first half but just 18.5 percent (5 of 27) in the second.
“When you make shots, things go a lot smoother and look a lot easier,” Tigers coach Tubby Smith said. “I thought we kind of got them back on their heels in the first half because we were attacking the basket and making shots. But we just didn't seem to match Cincinnati's intensity in the second half.”
Cincinnati trailed 42-29 at halftime but wiped out all of that in the first seven minutes of the second half with an active and aggressive defense.
Jacob Evans chased Johnson all over the floor and held him to 0-for-4 shooting after the freshman guard had hit all five of his field attempts in the first half, including four 3-pointers.
“He lit us up,” Clark said of Johnson's first-half shooting. “When you let a guy like that get comfortable, the rim gets bigger. We didn't let him get comfortable in the second half.”
Memphis missed 14 of its first 15 shots to start the second half and had two turnovers. That many opportunities put some life in the Cincinnati offense, which was dormant to that point.