Sports

Coogs eye No. 1 spot in National Division 

By Emily Davis
The Daily Cougar

As the raucous crowd at Hofheinz Pavilion cheered on the Cougars in the final seconds of another nail-biting Conference USA showdown Wednesday night, one command rang out above the din.

"Keep it hot," screamed UH assistant coach John Fitzpatrick.

And his players responded and held off South Florida 59-57 with two clutch foul shots from senior Louis Truscott.

"We came through again," head coach Ray McCallum said. "Victories like these are what we need to hold our spot in the division."

UH (5-11, 3-2 in C-USA) is now just a half-game behind Alabama-Birmingham for the National Division lead and will look to defend its position on the road against Texas Christian on Saturday.

"Weive learned from our earlier beatings as well as our recent victories," McCallum said. "But playing on the road is a whole other war."

But battle scars are more of a source of pride for the young Cougar team, which went more than a month without a win earlier in the season.

"We have grown stronger as a team and our confidence is boosted," said sophomore Andre Owens, who had 23 points and seven rebounds against the Bulls. "We support one another through everything now, wins and losses."

Truscott is no slouch in the stats column, either. Named as this weekis C-USA Player of the Week, the 6-6 forward leads the league with 10 double-doubles and is the top rebounder -- averaging 14 per game.

"I just like to bury my defender and get as close as I can to get my shots," Truscott said. "I see the job that needs to be done and I take care of it."

But the Horned Frogs (7-11, 1-5) are looking to take care of a little business of their own after an 84-82 overtime loss to UAB. Senior Jamal Brown had 15 points and 18 rebounds against the Blazers, but shot just 50 percent from the free-throw line (5-of-10).

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