PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – A Final Four team from last year, somehow the now 30-win Houston Cougars were a fifth seed. After breezing past UAB on Friday, the American Athletic Conference champ outscored Illinois 28-13 through the end of the game to win 68-53 at PPG Paints Arena advancing to the Sweet 16.
"Proud of our team, Illinois is what you see is what you get," said Houston Head Coach Kelvin Sampson. "There is nothing tricky about them. We've always taken pride of guarding the post. All of our kids bought in."
"Plans mean nothing if our players don't execute it. Story of this game is our toughness and how we defend."
"I wish I had an explanation for 6-25 three-point shooting," said Illinois Head Coach Brad Underwood. "When you turn the ball over 17 times, get outrebounded and give up a boatload of offensive rebounds. It really stresses your offense."
Cougars turned those 17 turnovers into 20 points, 15 of Houston's 39 rebounds were on the offensive glass and the Illini were held to 34% shooting. Offensively Taze Moore finished with 21 points, Jamal Sneed with 18 and Kyler Edwards with 15. Houston had one bench point the entire game.
"Jamal is extremely smart, his older sister was his calculus teacher," Sampson said. "He comes from a brilliant family. He could graduate in three years, he's so smart. His basketball IQ is high too. He's really good at reading, a lot of guards can only read what is in front of them, but can't read what is behind them or in the opposite corner. Jamal is really good at that."
Center Kofi Cockburn, who had Pitt as one of his final five schools coming out of high school, led the Illini with 19 points (6-11 field goals) and eight rebounds. Illinois hasn't advanced to the Sweet 16 since 2005.
No T
With 8:40 to play in the second half, Illinois RJ Melendez got a steal and raced in to dunk it and cut the Houston lead to 46-42. Melendez then called for a technical foul for hanging on the rim.
"I've been doing that since high school so I don't know what the problem is with that because I was going full speed on that transition," Melendez said. "I just hang on to try to land on both feet. The ref wouldn't explain what the tech was about."
"It's deflating," Underwood said. "You make a play that changes momentum of the game and to have that called in that moment. He told me he should never have called it, but in the moment, he called it. Maybe it's personal I don't know."
"For that play to be called like that. The kid has a full head of steam going 100 miles-an-hour. We all talk about safety and well-being of student athletes. Come on. Come on. And to kill momentum, horrible."
Up Next
Houston gets either Jamie Dixon and TCU or top-seed Arizona in the Sweet 16.
