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Sports

UH will try to light it up vs. Grambling

by CHRIS ELLIOTT
The Daily Cougar

If Houston's first two games were any indication of how the rest of the season will play out, only one thing is a given: the games will be fast-paced, turnover-filled and high-scoring. 

The Cougars (2-0) will enter their 7 p.m. game against Grambling State on Wednesday at Hofheinz Pavilion averaging 95.5 points per contest. Head coach Tom Penders said his squad has done well on the offensive side of the ball, but the defense could use minor improvements. 

"We're running (our system) pretty well for a team that just learned it. We scored 102 (against Rhode Island) and scored 89 (against Monmouth), a team that doesn't give up a lot of points, so that's good," Penders said. "On defense, the effort's there. We've got to tighten some things up, like rotating correctly, trapping and defensive rebounding, blocking out after we rotate … those are little things in our defense that we're going to get better at.

"We're going to allow more points because we're scoring more, and we're not holding onto the ball for that long."

The Tigers (1-0) are coached by former NBA veteran Larry Wright and have a junior point guard at the helm who will have his hands full against UH senior guard Oliver Lafayette and junior guard Robert "Fluff" McKiver.

"They've got a great little point guard (Andre Ratliff) that's really quick," Penders said. "They're a very athletic team. Any team that has a great point guard and can get up and down the floor … It provides an interesting game. It's not going to be one of those 60-58-point games. It could get up in the 100s."

Both Lafayette and McKiver are averaging more than 20 points per game. The guard tandem is shooting 53.5 percent from behind the arc, and Lafayette has hit 83 percent of his shots while McKiver is sitting at 73 percent. 

Lafayette and McKiver have contributed more than 50 percent of the team's offense, but Penders said another intangible will be equally as important down the stretch.

"One of the things that surprised me for Monmouth was that we had such a nice, noisy and loud crowd, and that really helped us out," Penders said. "If we didn't have a good house here against Monmouth, we would have been in trouble. We need the students to come to the game and enjoy themselves and get this thing behind us. We need to win badly, and we want to go into Thanksgiving on a real high note."

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