No. 1 Houston rallies to clinch share of Big 12
ORLANDO, Fla.– L.J. Cryer scored 19 of his 25 points in the second half to raise No. 1 Houston to a come-from-behind 67-59 victory over UCF on Wednesday night and clinch a minimum of a share of the regular-season Huge 12 title in the Cougars’ very first season in the conference.Houston, which moved
from the American Athletic Conference, has actually won either a conference tournament or regular-season title in 6 straight seasons.The Cougars can clinch a straight-out conference title with a win in their last game of the regular season versus No. 14 Kansas on Saturday or a loss by sixth-ranked Iowa State on Saturday at Kansas State.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated”We knew the Huge
12 is the best conference in college basketball,” Cougars forward J’Wan Roberts stated.” Houston has actually been a winning program for a very long time. It didn’t really matter which conference we ended up entering, once we traveled with our DNA and our strength, I seem like we can compete with anybody in the country.”Houston( 27-3, 14-3) led by nine points after a Cryer 3-pointer with 2:18 to play. UCF( 15-14, 6-11 )near within 4 with just over a minute to play, and then Cryer struck another clutch shot to pull away.The Cougars trailed by as numerous as seven points and never ever led in the first half.
They did not take their very first lead up until Jamal Shead drained a 3 to make it 45-42 with about 12 minutes to play in the second half.Houston’s defense suppressed UCF throughout the 2nd half, holding the Knights to one field goal over nearly 5 minutes to take control of the game.” I feel like there were some turnovers in there for sure,” UCF guard Darius Johnson stated.”We were using the perimeter
and permitting them to be comfortable on D.”Shead finished with 16 points and eight helps. Roberts had 12 points and seven rebounds. Cryer shot 9-of-17 from the flooring, including 5-of-11 on 3-pointers.”Coach informs me to keep shooting no matter if I am making or missing,”Cryer said. “As soon as I got going, they did a fantastic task putting the ball in my hands and my teammates did a fantastic task trusting me with the ball. We headed out there and did what we did. “C.J. Walker led UCF with 15 points. Jaylin Sellers included 12 points.The Knights shot 45.5% for the game. They held the Cougars to 37.5%shooting and 2-for-11 from 3 in the first half.Houston forced 18 turnovers and scored 22 points off them.UCF had simply 4 points off 10 forced turnovers.The Associated Press contributed
to this report.