UH finished the competition component of the Australian trip with a dominating win while giving younger players the stage. The U.S. Amateur is the world’s biggest and best amateur golf tournament, and two Cougars are vying for the trophy.
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Youth Prevails. Houston Hoops wrapped up the competition part of the Australia trip with an 88-50 win over AUSA Select. It appears to have been more like a scrimmage. Kelvin Sampson had indicated before the trip that he would try to reserve one game just for the younger players. And Sunday, J’Wan Roberts, LJ Cryer, and Jamal Shead did not play.
Mylik Wilson, Ja’Vier Francis, Ramon Walker, Damian Dunn, and Terrance Arceneaux got the start in the final game of the Tour. Mylik played 33 minutes, most of anyone, and Arceneaux played 32. As important, JoJo Tugler played 17 minutes, Cedric Lath got 14, and Jacob McFarland played 10.
Wilson had six assists and seven steals in the game to accompany his 14 points. Arceneaux had 15, nine rebounds, and six steals, Dunn had 14, Emanuel Sharp had 13, and Ramon Walker had 11. JoJo Tugler had eight points, four boards, and four steals. UH had 23 steals in the game.
Had it been a regular-season game, the 23 steals would rank 4th all-time in UH history, and Wilson’s seven steals would tie for 8th-best in school history. The Cougar youngsters created 31 turnovers and outscored Select 32-8 in the paint. UH led by 51 in the 4th quarter before calling off the dogs and were outscored in that period 23-12.
Box Score | Final Tour Stats | All Preseason Box Scores
Words. A selection from Kelvin’s quotes from the postgame:
“Played so many young guys, getting their nerves out,” Sampson said. “You could tell they were a little bit nervous.”
“Thought we did a lot of good things, but you know this was a great trip.”
“It’s a process. Our team is nowhere good as we’re gonna be in November, or December, or January. Certainly nowhere near where I think we can be when it gets to be February and March.”
“We got some guys that we’ve just gotta get back and get them in game shape. What Coach Bishop does in conditioning doesn’t get you ready to play basketball. It gets you ready to go to conditioning to get ready to play basketball. And that’s what September and October are about. We’re not in game-mode condition yet. But it’s no different than the last 35 years. Every year is the same for me.
“Basketball is important on this trip but not the most important thing…I’m proud of our kids’ effort and this’ll help us get better chemistry and get some togetherness and go back and hopefully be a better team.”
Pop Your Cherry. The U.S. Amateur begins Monday at venerable Cherry Hills, just outside Denver. UH golfers Nick Sutton and Austyn Reily each tee off at 1:30 CDT (Sutton off #1 at Cherry Hills, Reily off #10 at Colorado Golf Club). Players play each course over the next two days, and the top 64 move on to match play.
Sutton qualified for the Am at Vinoy Golf Club in St. Petersburg, Florida, while Reily returned to Puerto Rico to qualify. Reily won the PR qualifier, as he did last year when we profiled him.
Your author is heading to Denver to watch them play in my favorite tournament of the year.
Full coverage of UH’s trip to Australia
