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Sports

Dismal shooting hurts Houston

Cougars struggle from three-point range, 
practically shut out in final minutes

by CHRIS ELLIOTT
The Daily Cougar 

UH could not force South Alabama into turnover situations in its 66-61 loss that went down to the wire Wednesday night at Hofheinz Pavilion. But that did not come as a surprise to Houston head coach Tom Penders, who said prior to the game that the task would be difficult.

"You can't turn them over," Penders, whose team only forced 13 turnovers in the game, said. "There are certain teams you play, in particularly teams you play that have really good point guards, that you can't force to make mistakes. They had two of them on the floor. That's the kind of team I want. I want a team with two or three guys that can play the point."

The two-point guard strategy had worked well enough for Jaguar head coach John Pelphrey entering Wednesday's contest against a press- and trap-happy Cougar squad -- well enough for them to leave Hofheinz with a 20-7 record and a 13-game winning streak. USA guards Carlos Smith and Daon Merritt controlled the tempo and handled the ball with enough poise to secure their team a win. 

But they had a little help -- the Cougars couldn't hit shots down the stretch in the clutch.

Senior forward Jahmar "Dunk Master Flex" Thorpe hit a three-pointer with nine seconds to go in the game to cut USA's lead to 64-61, and that was UH's only converted shot from the field in the final 3:55 of the game. Junior guard Robert "Fluff" McKiver said it wasn't supposed to go down like that. The fundamentals failed the Cougars.

"We didn't capitalize on our opportunities," he said. "We didn't capitalize on the things that we work on every day in practice. We didn't bring that to the game, and I think that's why we lost."

McKiver shared a game-high 19 points with Thorpe but shot 2 for 11 from the field in the second half. The two combined for nearly 60 percent of UH's offense. Thorpe also picked up his first double-double of the season, grabbing 13 rebounds to compliment his 19-point offensive performance.

Thorpe consistently nailed his mid-range jumpers on the night, shooting 6 for 11 from the field and going 5 for 6 from the charity stripe. 

McKiver said he and is teammates will eventually begin to feed off of efforts like that.

"He's our warrior," McKiver said. "He's our best player. I think we feed off of him. He did his job, we've just got to keep fighting and try to get our teammates on the same page."

Though Thorpe and McKiver had big nights statistically, they were overshadowed by USA's ability to get production from virtually everyone on the floor, like Jaguar guard Brandon Davis, who came off the bench and grabbed seven rebounds.

To add insult to injury, the Jaguars hit their shots from behind the arc like they were at the foul line in the first half, shooting 8 for 11. USA showed the ability to handle pressure and the Cougars were late on their rotations, which led to a 37-34 halftime lead for USA.
 

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