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Sports

Cougars look to release frustration of loss

Prairie View A&M will face Houston tonight at Hofheinz Pavilion with intentions of not getting run out of the gym

by CHRIS ELLIOTT
THE DAILY COUGAR

Houston missed some opportunities to come out of Saint Louis with a close win Saturday. But the shots just did not fall, and the 5-1 Billikens got the best of a Houston team that was not at full strength after losing junior guard Marcus Malone to a flu virus.

Well, unless the Prairie View A&M Panthers get their hands on one of those convenient Staples Easy Buttons, the Cougars have a nice shot at padding their stats with another blowout victory over a South Western Athletic Conference opponent 7 p.m. tonight at Hofheinz Pavillion. Houston head coach Tom Penders, however, says this game will not be an automatic check in the win column, and neither will any other match-up on the schedule.

"Those kind of teams can be really dangerous. I call them sweat teams. I sweat them. I sweat those kinds of games," Penders said. "When you're an underdog or it's a toss up you just say ‘Well whatever happens happens.' Coaches always feel like kids aren't ready enough. They're not focused enough. I hope they take it seriously. Yeah that kind of thing.

"It would be nice — real nice — if we could go into that 15-day break (in December) 5-1. I think it would put us in pretty good position to accomplish our goals." 

Reaching a 5-1 record will not be as easy as advertised though. After playing the Panthers today, the Cougars will have to go on the road and play Virginia Common Wealth, a team that had a one-point, upset victory over Houston last year in Hofheinz Pavilion. 

Junior point guard Robert "Fluff" McKiver could only put up 14 points against Saint Louis' double team. He said he expects to put up significantly better numbers against a 1-5 Prairie View team, but he, like his coach, does not plan on overlooking the Tigers.

"I'm not going to really make any excuses. We lost the game. I felt like I could have done more to help our team to win, but we learned a lot from the loss. It's going to be hard to beat us again," McKiver said.

Even though Prairie View is a 1-5 team from a struggling team from a struggling mid-major conference McKiver feels like he and his teammates cannot get too comfortable.

"We can't look at it like that. We've got to come out and play hard like we're playing Duke so we can get better as a team. We've got to approach every game like it's our last," McKiver said.

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