The Cougars breezed to two easy home wins this week over Wichita State and Tulane. UH trailed by 10 in the second half to the Shockers before going on a 16-0 run. Quentin Grimes scored 20 and had five rebounds in that second half.
Against Tulane in the first half, the Cougars moved the ball well and led by 12 at the half. Marcus Sasser was on fire, hitting six of 7 three-pointers to lead all scorers with 20 points at the break. Sasser ended with 8 three-pointers made, tied for second-most in school history.
Kelvin Sampson was quick to point out how many of those came from an assist. Five of the eight made threes were assisted while the other three were step-backs. Sasser finished his night early but still had 28 points. Quentin Grimes came alive again in the second half, scoring 11 points in 11 minutes.
In less than 20 minutes of floortime, Cameron Tyson made three three-pointers while J’Wan Roberts grabbed 8 rebounds. Both showed they will contribute down the stretch.
When including Sunday’s win at SMU, the Cougars had a great bounceback from the loss to Tulsa and Caleb Mills’ decision to transfer. In the three games, Sasser scored 57 total points, Grimes had 47, Justin Gorham had 40 rebounds, and DeJon Jarreau had 24 boards of his own.
After UH lost Caleb Mills to transfer on Tuesday, the team seemed to shrug it off. In postgame interviews after Tulane, Kelvin Sampson and Marcus Sasser both seem disinterested in talking about Mills. When asked if the team had talked about Caleb or replacing his points, Sasser said “not really” and that they’ll “just continue to play Cougar basketball.”
Click a photo and you can scroll through each of them in the lightbox. All images © Mario Puente 2021.
