(SportsRadio 610) - The Houston Cougars continued their winning ways Wednesday night at the Fertitta Center with an 83-77 victory over the University of South Florida.
Senior guard Marcus Sasser scored a career-high 31 points while Jamal Shead added 21 points.
The Cougar duo combined for 36 of their 48 second half points to help the Cougars win for the 12th time at home this season.
What head coach Kelvin Sampson is learning about his squad this year is that they can persevere when they don't have their best stuff.
Or players.
The top-ranked Cougars (17-1, 5-0 American Athletic Conference) played without freshman sensation Jarice Walker, who was recognized as the American Conference freshman of the week after leading his team in scoring the previous two games, averaging 22 points per game on 60% shooting from the field, including 50% from behind the arc.
"It's been a rough stretch, I think it's our third game in six days (It was actually their third in seven days), you know, we've got so many guys out," Sampson said. "Even Bowser (Darius), had a death in his family. He had to fly back home for a funeral. Jarace (Walker) had a 103 degree temperature - Ramon (Walker Jr.) is out. You might as well say J'Wan (Robert's) was out tonight too, he didn't play."
The Cougars got out to leads of 7-2 and 17-12 before USF rallied to take a 20-19 lead with 8:37 remaining in the first half.
Houston didn't play with the energy out of the gate that they're used to, and that remained a challenge throughout the game with the game being bogged down by a ton of whistles and free throws.
Both teams combined for 45 fouls and 59 free throw attempts on the night.
The Cougars went on an 18-6 run over a five minute stretch to take their first double-digit lead of the night on an Emmanuel Sharp three-pointer to give his team a 37-26 lead inside three minutes remaining in the first half.
South Florida answered and closed out the half on a 10-0 run themselves to make it a 37-36 game at the break.
The Cougars would relinquish their lead after a Keyshawn Bryant three-pointer to give South Florida a 42-40 edge at the 17:07 mark in the second half.
Despite being shorthanded and having any momentum they built quickly stifled by multiple stoppages of play, the Cougars were like assassins and seemed to strike at the right time.
Sasser, no stranger to timely buckets, had an electric sequence that sent the crowd at Fertitta Center into a frenzy after knocking down a three-pointer to cut the South Florida lead to 53-51 with 13:33 remaining.
Seconds later, Sasser came up with a steal and after getting the ball back from Tramon Mark on the outlet, pulled up and drained his second straight three ball to give the Cougars the lead for good at 56-51.
The Cougars built an 11-point advantage to lead 68-57 inside seven minutes to play, but South Florida chipped away late and hung around long enough to make it interesting.
A dagger three-pointer inside a minute left by Sasser to give the Cougars a 77-68 lead and late free throws helped preserve the victory.
Sampson said the gritty and veteran South Florida squad helped them learn something about themselves.
"That we can not have our fastball and find a way to win," Sampson said. "We need to get our team back. But we're fortunate. I mean, knock on wood, we've dodged a lot of bullets this year, in terms of injuries and stuff. Sometimes you've just got to get lucky. I thought we got lucky tonight, we could've lost that game. South Florida played good enough to win but so did we. And we won."
The Cougars have a well deserved five days off before their next game when they travel to Tulane (11-5, 4-1 American Athletic Conference) and take on the Green Wave next Tuesday.
Shaun Bijani has spent the last 16 years covering the Houston sports scene for SportsRadio 610. Follow him on Twitter @ShaunBijani.
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