SAN ANTONIO — Jamal Shead scored a career-high 21 factors and Houston led all through in a 72-60 victory over top-seeded Arizona on Thursday night time, transferring the Cougars inside one win of a second straight Ultimate 4.
With Taze Moore entering into early foul hassle after his 3-pointer for a 5-0 lead within the first two minutes, Shead and Kyler Edwards had been each on the court docket practically all the sport for the Cougars (32-5). Edwards, the Texas Tech switch who performed within the 2019 nationwide championship sport for the Purple Raiders, had 19 factors with 5 3-pointers.
After fast consecutive layups by Dalen Terry received Arizona inside 64-58 with simply over two minutes left, Edwards settled issues for Houston with a 3 from the appropriate wing.
Houston performs second-seeded Villanova (28-7) within the South Area closing on Saturday in San Antonio, which is about 200 miles from the UH campus.
Terry had 17 factors for the Wildcats (33-4), whereas Pac-12 participant of the 12 months Bennedict Mathurin had 15 and Christian Koloko had 10.
The American Athletic Convention champion Cougars grew to become the second former Southwest Convention crew to knock a No. 1 seed out of this NCAA Match in a matter of hours. High total seed Gonzaga misplaced 74-68 to Arkansas, which went to the SEC in 1991, 5 years earlier than the SWC’s closing season.
These Cougars are a lot completely different than those coach Kelvin Sampson took the the Ultimate 4 final 12 months — their first since going 3 times in a row through the Phi Slama Jama period from 1982-84.
Houston misplaced 4 starters from final season after which misplaced Marcus Sasser, the lone returner and main scorer who broke his left foot earlier than Christmas. Sophomore guard Tramon Mark additionally had a season-ending shoulder damage.
Arizona had one of many least-experienced groups in Division I this season; based on KenPom.com, the Wildcats common 0.63 years of skilled, ranked 355th out of 358 groups. However they received 33 video games, and two of their losses had been on the street through the common season towards top-20 groups.
These 33 wins left Tommy Lloyd one win shy of essentially the most in NCAA historical past for a first-year coach. He took over the Wildcats after 21 seasons as an assistant coach for Mark Few at Gonzaga.
