Williams, Smith hope to
lead Cougars to win
By Jake McKim
Daily Cougar Staff
Last time the Cougars rumbled with Southern
Miss, UH senior guard Dominic Smith utterly dominated, scoring a career-high
38 points and
leading his team to a convincing 74-66
victory at Hofheinz Pavilion.
Brian Viney/The Daily Cougar
Senior guard Dominic Smith
lays the ball up against Charlotte Feb. 2. Smith is finally fully recovered
from a knee sprain he suffered in practice
last week.
Cougar fans can only hope for a similar
performance from the tough, hard-working Smith tonight when the Cougars
travel to Hattiesburg, Miss., for
the rematch. Smith recently sprained his
right knee but will be at 100 percent by tipoff, UH head coach Ray McCallum
said.
The Cougars have lost three straight, including
Saturday's 83-68 defeat to a sharp-shooting Charlotte team.
Despite the slump, UH is still 11-10 overall
and is tied with South Florida and Tulane for second place in Conference
USA's National Division with
a 4-4 league record. Southern Miss is
7-12 on the season, 2-7 in C-USA.
After tonight's game, the Cougars will
face Texas Christian in Dallas on Saturday, a team they already beat earlier
in the season.
"The big picture is we have eight games
left, we're tied for second in our division and fifth (in the conference),"
McCallum said.
"We have two teams coming up that we've
defeated. We have to regroup going into their houses and put the kind of
effort we put forward against
those two teams here, and go after the
W(win)," McCallum said.
In the loss to Charlotte, junior forward
George Williams came out of his shell, scoring a season-high 23 points.
He also grabbed 12 rebounds in
that contest.
Williams, who is incredibly talented but
often frustrates fans with his lack of aggressiveness, is averaging 11.0
points and 7.6 rebounds on the
season.
These are solid numbers, but Williams'
potential is much higher. With imposing 6-8 height, a rock-solid body,
long arms and a sweet shooting
touch, Williams is a player you might
expect to see playing professionally after his work is done with the Cougars.
"I told George a couple of days ago, 'You
just don't know how good you could be,' and I think everybody sees that,"
Smith said.
"He's getting aggressive, staying after
his shooting and it's starting to pay off."
With Williams' emergence and a starting
five in which every player is averaging in double figures, Smith feels
good about the Cougars' chances
against Southern Mississippi tonight.
"The good thing about going to play Southern
Miss is we've beaten them once before," said Smith. "Now we've got probably
our most athletic,
best all-around player coming off a big
game, so that's the kind of momentum we need going into their house."
The Golden Eagles lost a heartbreaker to
Tulane in overtime on Saturday in which they led by as much as eight with
6:49 remaining in the game.
Tulane fought back and tied the game at
the end of regulation, and then took the 66-61 victory in overtime.
The Golden Eagles captured their first-ever
C-USA National Division title last season as well as the co-championship
of the league along with
Cincinnati.
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. The game will
be broadcast on KBME-AM 790.
