Houston downs UCF on Danuel House's 18 points

TaShawn Thomas (35) goes up for the dunk against

By Robert H Kelly
Copyright 2014 TexSport Publications

HOUSTON, TEXAS (February 22, 2014) Led by Danuel House’s 18 points, the Houston Cougars raised their conference record to 5-9 by defeating Central Florida by the score of 88-84 at Hofheinz Pavilion in Houston, Texas on Saturday, February 22, 2104.

With the win, the Cougars also raised their season record to 13-14 with four games remaining in the regular season.

House was virtually unstoppable, playing for 29 minutes and connecting on 3-of-5 from the field and 8-of-8 from the line.

He also was 2-of-3 from three-point range.

Three other Houston players scored in double figures: Jherrod Stiggers (17), L.J. Rose (12) and TaShawn Thomas (11).

The game stayed fairly even, with the score being tied 14 times, until the 18:26 mark in the second half.
At that point, the Cougars began to slowly pull away, achieving an eight-point lead at the 10:02 mark and extending the lead to 10 point with 55 seconds remaining on the clock.

Defensively, Houston pulled down 21 rebounds, with Thomas and Brandon Morris accounting for four each.
They scored 24 points on offensive turnovers and 11 second-chance points.

From Central Florida, Tristan Spurlock scored 21 points, followed by Isaiah Sykes with 19 and Kasey Wilson with 10.

Houston shot 58% (28-28) from the field, as opposed to 47% (31-65) for the Knights; with the Cougars connecting on 10-of 16 from behind the arc.

With four games remaining on their regular schedule, the Cougars are currently in sixth place in the ten-team standings.

Cincinnati leads the conference with a 13-2 record, followed by Louisville at 12-2.

They are followed, in third place, by SMU (10-4) with Connecticut and Memphis tied in fourth at 9-4.

That follows with Houston in sixth, with Rutgers (4-10), South Florida (3-11), Central Florida (2-12), and Temple (2-11) rounding our the standings.

The Cougars have two home and two roads games remaining.

The face #22/24 Memphis at home on Thursday, February 27, followed by a March 1 match-up with Temple on the road.

They return to Houston for their final home game of the season against South Florida on Saturday, March 1 and finish the season on the road with their second match-up against Central Florida.