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Sports

Cougars erase 20-point halftime deficit in home win

by CHRIS ELLIOTT
The Daily Cougar

Junior point guard Robert "Fluff" McKiver caught fire in the second half of UH's 73-70 victory over Central Florida on Wednesday, scoring 25 of his career-high 36 points to keep the Cougars within striking distance. 

Junior guard Marcus Malone came off the bench and knocked down a shot from downtown to tie the game at 64 with 42.6 seconds remaining in regulation. Malone then hit another huge shot with 41.7 left in overtime to give UH a 71-68 advantage. 

Senior guard Oliver Lafayette proceeded to ice the game with a pair of free throws with 6.3 seconds remaining to secure Houston's 22-point comeback at Hofheinz Pavilion.

McKiver, whose 36 points were the most by a Cougar since Andre Owens dropped 41 against Texas A&M on Dec. 7, 2003, said his performance was part of a greater effort. His output would have meant nothing if the team had lost the game. 

"It proves that we can fight as a team," McKiver said. "We were down 15-35 (at the half). We just wanted to show people that, win or lose, we have fight in us and that's what we did and we got the win."

UH head coach Tom Penders said UCF caught his team by surprise in the first half -- the Cougars' 15 points were the fewest they've scored in a half this season -- by pressuring the ball and forcing his team into turnover situations and preventing them from getting anything accomplished in the half-court offense.

In the mean time, Golden Knight forward Lavell Payne killed the Cougars from the free-throw line, where he went 13-16, and from the field, shooting 60 percent to finish the night with 26 points. 

Penders said his team did what it had to do late in the game to leave Hofheinz victorious.

"UCF played us as well as any team that we have played against in the first half of the season," Penders said. "We just kept scratching and clawing. We finally got some shots to start falling for us in the second half, and we stopped them at critical times on defense."

Once the second half began, McKiver found himself able to score in all ways, shapes and forms. He hit a one-handed leaner at the shot-clock buzzer in overtime to give UH a 66-65 lead. He ended the night with a six for 11 performance from behind the arc.

His teammates began to feed off of each other late in the game, McKiver said, referring to Malone stepping up late in the contest to shift the momentum.

"That showed that we were a team," McKiver said. "Marcus really hadn't been hitting a lot of shots. He just took advantage of the opportunity he had and I got it to him when he was open and he hit big shots and we won the game."

Malone, who was vastly ineffective on the court offensively for the Cougars in the first half, said he felt like he would have to step up and help out his teammates sooner or later and was glad to get the chance to impact the game at such critical times.

"The pressure was on, and the coaches, they all believe in me," Malone said. "It was just a matter of me knocking them down. My teammates did a great job with finding me. I just had to knock down shots."

When Malone's shots finally began to fall in the second half as the Cougars mounted their comeback, Malone said the fans began to build the team's confidence and make it easier to keep the tempo up and play at such a high level. There were only 3,914 fans in attendance at the game and some of the fans began to file out at the half, but Malone said it didn't matter.

"They were very instrumental in our win," Malone said. "When we get going and it gets to echoing in the gym, it feels like it's a packed house. So I'm glad the fans came out here and enjoyed themselves."

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