The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Sasser, No. 6 Houston beat SMU for 8th straight win
HOUSTON — Marcus Sasser scored 19 points and No. 6 Houston beat SMU 70-48 on Sunday for its eighth straight win.
Sasser bounced back to make five of his last 10 shots. After scoring just three points in a victory over Tulane on Thursday, he opened 0 for 5 against the Mustangs.
“My teammates kept telling me every time I went to the bench, ‘Keep shooting the ball,’ ” Sasser said. “Coach (Kelvin Sampson) tells me all the time he doesn’t care how many I miss, just keep shooting. Even when I am off to a bad start like that, I keep shooting and gaining confidence because my teammates put that confidence in me even though I miss.”
Justin Gorham had nine points and 17 rebounds for Houston (15-1, 10-1 American Athletic Conference), which won its 20th consecutive home game. Reggie Chaney added 10 points.
The Cougars won despite shooting only 34%.
“I thought our offense was great the first half, we just weren’t making open shots,” Sampson said. “Look at how many open shots we missed, look at how many shots around the rim we were missing. I told our guys, ‘Don’t worry about that, you’ll make them.’ ”
Houston outrebounded SMU 45-33 and committed 10 turnovers.
“Our defense has been getting better,” Sampson said. “There are three core tenets of our program: our
defense, our rebounding and taking care of the ball. I thought we were outstanding in all three areas.”
Kendric Davis led SMU (9-4, 5-4) with 11 points. Feron Hunt and Yor Anei each scored 10 points for the Mustangs, who made 32% percent of their shots.
“I thought in the first half we played incredibly hard, boxed out, kept them off the glass,” SMU assistant coach Yaphett King said. “We did battle with them, but in the second half, they kept coming, kept coming. We didn’t match that intensity, which I wish we would have because I think if we could have hung in there, some shots would have started to fall, and we would have gotten some confidence from it.”
NO. 13 OHIO STATE 79, MICHIGAN STATE 62
COLUMBUS, Ohio — No. 13 Ohio State caught Michigan State in the midst of a uncommon skid and beat the blue-blood Big Ten
program for the first time in its last five tries.
The Spartans had 20 days off because of COVID-19 issues and then lost to Rutgers by 30 points on Thursday night. The shooting went cold again in the second half on Sunday, and the opportunistic Buckeyes cruised to a 79-62 rout.
Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann doesn’t expect to see the same team when the Buckeyes visit East Lansing on Feb. 25.
“Listen, I think they certainly missed some shots that they’ll make, and they’ll certainly make at their place and they’ll make once they get their legs back,” Holtmann said. “There’s not a better lateseason coach in the country than Tom (Izzo).”
E.J. Liddell had 20 points and eight rebounds, and Justice Sueing added 17 to lead the Buckeyes (14-4, 8-4 Big Ten), who again played solid defense. They’ve won three in a row and six of seven.