National Basketball Association
Houston 67, South Florida 58
When: 4:00 PM ET, Saturday, January 4, 2014
Where: USF Sun Dome, Tampa, Florida
Officials:
# Lee Cassell, # Jim Burr, # Matt Potter
Attendance:
3921
By SportsDirect Inc.
Houston 67, South Florida 58: TaShawn Thomas scored 13 points, blocked six shots and had six steals to lead the visiting Cougars to the American Athletic Conference victory.
Tione Womack scored a career-high 12 points, Danrad Knowles finished with 12 points and five rebounds and Jherrod Stiggers added 11 points for Houston (10-5, 2-0). The Cougars, playing in their first year in the AAC, moved to 2-0 in conference play for the first time since 2008-09.
Martino Brock led South Florida (9-6, 0-2) with 11 points and Chris Perry finished with 10 points and six rebounds. The Bulls shot 37 percent from the floor and made just 13-of-25 free throws.
Houston, coming off a 75-71 upset of No. 15 Connecticut on New Year's Eve, rode the hot-shooting of guard Brandon Morris, who sank three 3-pointers in a five-minute span, out to an early 28-14 lead. The Bulls, despite shooting just 32 percent, closed the margin to 34-26 at halftime on a layup by Chris Perry off a pass from Corey Allen Jr. just before the buzzer.
South Florida, which went 0-for-9 from 3-point range in its AAC opening loss to Memphis on Tuesday, missed its first 11 shots beyond the arc against the Cougars before Musa Abdul-Aleem finally connected with 12:23 remaining to cut Houston's lead to 44-40. But the Cougars answered with a 6-1 run highlighted by a 3-pointer by Stiggers to take a nine-point lead, 50-41, and the Bulls never got closer than six points the rest of the way.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Sourth Florida was without PG Anthony Collins, a preseason second-team all-AAC pick, who is battling left knee tendinitis. ... Houston was minus starting guards Danuel House (knee) and L.J. Rose (foot) and key reserve forward J.J. Richardson (foot). ... Thomas became the 13th player in Houston history with 1,100 career points and 700 career rebounds.
Top Game Performances
| Houston |
|
South Florida |
|
TaShawn Thomas 13 |
Scoring |
Martino Brock 11 |
|
Jaaron Simmons 5 |
Assists |
Corey Allen Jr. 6 |
|
LeRon Barnes 9 |
Rebounds |
Corey Allen Jr. 9 |
|
Danrad Knowles 6 |
Free Throws Made |
John Egbunu 7 |
|
TaShawn Thomas 6 |
Steals |
Corey Allen Jr. 2 |
|
TaShawn Thomas 6 |
Blocks |
John Egbunu 2 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| Houston
|
67 |
41.8 |
6-14 |
15-24 |
14 |
31 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
| South Florida
|
58 |
37.0 |
5-21 |
13-25 |
14 |
36 |
4 |
5 |
16 |
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