San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Cryer, Cougars outlast Bears on road
WACO — The crowd inside Foster Pavilion booed L.J. Cryer every time he touched the ball Saturday.
When he was introduced before the game. When he caught a pass. When he took a shot. Playing against his old team, Cryer drowned out the noise and kept the University of Houston on course for a possible Big 12 title.
Cryer had 15 points, including six free throws in overtime, as the secondranked Cougars escaped with an 82-76 win over No. 11 Baylor.
“It felt like the world was against you, but it felt really good to be able to step up in that moment,” Cryer said.
Houston (24-3, 11-3) cleared one of the toughest remaining hurdles in its bid for the Big 12 regular-season title in its first season in the league. The Cougars own a one-game lead over Iowa State with four games left in the regular season.
With three weeks until Selection Sunday, the Cougars are firmly locked in as a No. 1 seed in every NCAA Tournament bracket projection. Up next: a possible No. 1 ranking when the polls come out Monday.
The Cougars blew a 16point halftime lead and had to withstand a furious Baylor (19-8, 8-6 Big 12) comeback sparked by the Bears' guard combo of Ja'Kobe Walter and RayJ Dennis, who combined for 44 points. Baylor tied the game at 69 when Yves Missi, a 7-foot freshman center, made his only basket of the game and was fouled with 4.4 seconds left in regulation. After Missi missed the free throw, the Cougars thought they had won the game on Jamal Shead's buzzer-beater at the end of regulation. Replays, however, showed the ball was still in Shead's hands when the clock ran out.
“Our guys are tough,” said Houston coach Kelvin Sampson, whose team won for the 10th time in the last 11 games. “It's not always pretty, but the last time I checked, it's not a beauty contest.”
Dennis gave the Bears their only lead of the game, 71-69, to begin OT. From that point, J'Wan Roberts made a shortrange shot and Cryer delivered the go-ahead points with a pair of free throws with 3:06 left. Houston was 17-of-19 on free throws after halftime, including 9-of-10 in OT.
The boos began to fade in the closing minute as the sellout crowd of 7,500 filed out of Foster Pavilion, Baylor's new $212 million home on the banks of the Brazos River.
Across Interstate 35 at the Ferrell Center is where Cryer spent three seasons and was a freshman on the Bears' national championship team in 2021.
“I expected the boos, but not every time I touched the ball,” said Cryer, who finished with 15 points and did not commit a turnover in nearly 43 minutes. “It got to the point where, honestly, I wasn't hearing it anymore.”
Emanuel Sharp had 18 points, converting a couple difficult off-balance shots late in the second half, and Roberts had a stat sheet-stuffing 17 points, eight rebounds, six steals and four assists. Jamal Shead, the frontrunner for Big 12 Player of the Year, had 12 points and 10 assists.
“We're all responsible for this win,” Shead said. “It was a really good team win.”
Forward Ja'Vier Francis, who played only five minutes in the first half because of foul trouble, contributed a key dunk and tip-in on consecutive possessions late in regulation when Baylor closed within 62-61.
“I thought the last 10 minutes he was great,” Sampson said of Francis.
Houston shot nearly 60% from the floor in the first half, controlled the paint and built a 17-point lead in the first half. Baylor used a 15-2 run to climb back into the game behind the hot shooting of Dennis and later Jalen Bridges, who had 17 points and 13 rebounds.
UH held a 37-29 edge in rebounds, scored 32 points in the paint and forced Baylor into 19 turnovers.
“I don't care how the game went,” Sampson said. “You can spin it … talk about it all you want. You can autopsy this thing. It was a great win road win for us, and that's all that matters.”
As Cryer stepped to the free-throw line one last time with 5 seconds left, the boos had disappeared.
A Whose House chant began in a corner of Foster Pavilion behind the UH bench.
“I felt like it was only right for me to go out there and seal the game,” Cryer said.