Heartbreaking day for the Cougars all-around: WBB loses by a point on an odd play, MBB loses in OT at SMU, and baseball takes a bad loss to a team that will be quadrant 4 come tourney time.
Numbers and notes:
Sasser Nearly Saves The Day: Marcus Sasser scored 26 points on 8/15 shooting Saturday evening in Dallas. He was 5/10 from beyond the arc and 5/5 at the line. Sasser became the de facto point guard when Jarreau fouled out with 3:34 left in regulation.
Deeper: Sasser was clutch – he scored 11 points in the final 5 minutes of regulation: a couple of 3-pointers and went 5/5 at the line. The three big free throws with 3 seconds left pushed the game to OT.
Sasser scored five more points in OT but missed two three-pointers including the one at the buzzer. Still, 16 points in the final 10 minutes of the game on the road for a freshman – get excited about his future.
Puzzling: After seeing women’s basketball had lost to Temple, 76-75, I went through the gamebook and one thing stood out: the Lady Coogs had a fast-break lay-up at the buzzer to end the game.
And they lost by a point. How do you not attempt a three-pointer there?
So I looked at the team’s social media and sure enough – there it is.
A lay-up at the buzzer isn't quite enough as the Cougars fall at Temple by one.
Dymond – 19 points
Julia – 13 boards
Julia/Dymond – 5 assists#EverythingMatters pic.twitter.com/9Et9qeRGdH— UH Women Hoops (@UHCougarWBB) February 15, 2020
It sounds like bad situational awareness.
Awful Offense: Friday night was concerning for Cougar baseball: outside of JUCO transfer Ryan Hernandez, the team just didn’t hit. Hernandez had 3 of the UH’s 7 hits that night. Thankfully, UH got to Youngstown’s bullpen and pushed some runs across in the 6th and 7th.
Saturday, it was even worse. Much worse. In an 11-inning game, the Cougars managed just three hits (all solo home runs). Worse, UH had just four baserunners in the game.
Not time to panic yet but this is exactly what we saw last year. Hernandez is 4/8 with a homer and a double. The rest of the team? Hitting just .102 (6/59).
Hold Serve: The Cougars are a half-game up on Cincinnati and Tulsa and 1.5 games on SMU in the AAC race. To this point in the season, UH is 11-2 at home while SMU is 14-1, Cincinnati is 11-1, and Tulsa is 12-2 at home.
Defending the home court is paramount at the top of this league. The top four teams are 24-1 at home in the conference and just 12-12 on the road. UH was close to beating all three on the road but didn’t get it done. Tulsa is mission-critical on Wednesday night.
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