PROVIDENCE, R.I. - It was a milestone night for the American Athletic Conference on Wednesday, led by No. 21/17 Houston winning at SMU, 69-58, which was head coach Kelvin Sampson's 600
th career win. Additionally, senior Shizz Alston, Jr., netted his 200
th career 3-pointer as rv/- Temple won at ECU, 85-74. Tulsa overcame UConn, 89-83, while Wichita State also protected its home court, winning its first league game of the season while handing rv/rv UCF its first conference loss, 75-67.
Wednesday, January 16
rv/- Temple 85, ECU 74
Senior guard Shizz Alston, Jr. drained seven of his 10 three-point attempts and finished with 23 points to lead Temple men's basketball to an 85-74 win at ECU (8-9, 1-4). The Owls (14-3, 4-1) let a huge first-half lead get away, but recovered later in the second half to pull away and win their fourth straight game.
Against the third-best three-point defense in the nation in ECU coming into the game, Alston made his first three shots from long range and never looked back. As a team, Temple went 11-of-22 (50 percent) from behind the arc.
The Owls gave up the game's first basket before scoring 21 straight points, and led by 20 points less than seven minutes into the contest.
Temple still led by 14 at the half, but ECU opened the second half with an 18-5 run to come within a point.
The score was never tied and the Owls never trailed after hitting their first shot of the game, and they recovered from the ECU second-half run with an 8-0 spurt to pull away for good.
Temple gave up a season-high 51 second-half points, but also scored a season-high 48 second-half points.
The team-high 23 points for Alston, who became the ninth Owl to make 200 career three-pointers, marked his eighth 20-point game this season. He also recorded four assists and three steals.
Quinton Rose scored 19 points and Nate Pierre-Louis added 16, with the pair also combining for seven assists and four steals.
Ernest Aflakpui posted his second double-double of the season (fifth of his career), adding a game-high and career-tying 12 rebounds to 12 points (4-of-5 shooting from the field and 4-of-4 free throws).
ECU freshman Jayden Gardner, averaging a league-best 19.4 points per game, scored 27 points, eclipsing the 20-point mark for the eighth time this season. K.J. Davis had 15 and Issac Fleming 11. LeDay recorded his third double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
No. 21/17 Houston 69, SMU 58
Corey Davis Jr. scored 20 points and Armoni Brooks added 19 with five 3-pointers as No. 21/17 Houston led throughout in a 69-58 win at SMU on Wednesday night.
Davis hit a 3-pointer for the game's first points, and the Cougars (17-1, 4-1) jumped out to a 12-4 lead after Brooks made three early 3s. Houston led 31-22 at halftime after Brooks buried a long straightaway 3 just before the break.
Jimmy Whitt Jr. had 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting for SMU (11-6, 3-2), which played most of the game without senior guard Jarrey Foster (sprained left knee).
Houston coach Kelvin Sampson got his 600th career win in 30 seasons, and his 100th victory in five seasons with the Cougars. Sampson, who has a 600-319 overall record, previously coached at Indiana, Oklahoma, Washington State and Montana Tech.
Davis scored 15 points in the second half, when Houston built a 17-point lead. The Mustangs cut the deficit to nine before Houston worked the shot clock down and Brooks hit a long 3 from the left wing to make it 67-55 with 1:47 left.
Fabian White Jr. added 11 points for Houston.
Isiaha Mike had 15 points for SMU and Jahmal McMurray scored 11. Ethan Chargois had a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
The Cougars won for the second year in a row at SMU, where the Mustangs are 46-9 under coach Tim Jankovich the past four seasons. Houston bounced back from a loss last week at Temple that ended its 15-0 start, winning at home over Wichita State on Saturday before the solid road win at Moody Coliseum.
The Mustangs had won nine of their previous 11 games. Foster played only four minutes before leaving the game. He missed the second half of last season and the first six games this season after an ACL injury. Jankovich said Foster tweaked his knee and will have tests on Thursday. He is the only scholarship player who has played at SMU more than one season.
Tulsa 89, UConn 83
Jeriah Horne scored a career-high 27 points to lead Tulsa to a season-high in points and an 89-83 win over visiting UConn on Wednesday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
Horne went 8-of-11 from the field, including 3-of-4 behind the arc, and hit all eight of his free throw attempts for the highest scoring game from a Tulsa player this season. The sophomore had 17 points by halftime and he led four players in double-figures for the Golden Hurricane (12-6, 2-3).
DaQuan Jeffries added 14 points, while Martins Igbanu added 13 and Sterling Taplin chipped in with 11.
Tulsa neared a season high in field goal percentage, shooting 53.7-percent. The TU bench totaled 41 points with contributions from Elijah Joiner (8 points) and Darien Jackson (career-high 6 points), along with Horne's career night.
Meanwhile, Jalen Adams scored 27 points to lead the Huskies (10-8, 1-4). Christian Vital added 15 points before fouling out and the visitors were held to 41.9-percent shooting.
Tulsa stretched a 42-37 halftime lead to double-digits in the opening minutes of the second half with an 8-2 run. Minutes later, the home squad took its largest lead of the night with 9-0 spurt that pushed the cushion to 61-44 with 12:08 to play.
Joiner started the run with a layup before a jumper and two free throws from Horne. Taplin then capped the stretch with a 3-pointer in the corner that caused the Huskies to burn a timeout.
UConn scored the next seven points, but the Tulsa advantage was at least 10 until Vital's triple with 5:21 left made it 70-61.
The lead never dipped below six points as TU kept the Huskies at arm's length by hitting 13 free throws in the final four minutes. Jackson put an exclamation point on the win with a breakaway dunk following a missed shot and rebound by Jeffries in the waning seconds as Tulsa took the 89-83.
The Huskies led in the opening minutes before the Hurricane went on a quick 7-0 run to take an 11-9 lead, and the home squad wouldn't trail again.
Horne scored seven straight points for TU down the stretch of the first half and TU led by as much as eight before taking the five-point edge to intermission.
Wichita State 75, rv/rv UCF 67
Wichita State went on a 10-3 run over the final two minutes of the game to secure a 75-67 win over the UCF Knights late Wednesday evening at Charles Koch Arena.
With the win, the Shockers (8-8, 1-3) pick up their first American Athletic Conference victory of the season, while handing the Knights (13-3, 3-1) their first conference loss of 2019.
Senior Markis McDuffie led three Wichita State players in double figures, scoring 18 points in the second half for a game-high 23 points, while fellow senior Samajae Haynes-Jones added 14 and freshman Dexter Dennis chipped in 12. Dennis paced WSU on the glass, snagging a career-best nine rebounds.
The Shockers and Knights struggled to score the opening five minutes of the game, with WSU and UCF combining to score just 11 points.
Wichita State caught fire at the 15:31 mark of the first half though, and went on a 13-2 run over the next seven minutes, turning a 7-4 deficit into a 17-9 lead after a Haynes-Jones jumper with 8:35 remaining.
Sophomore Asbjørn Midtgaard went a perfect 2-for-2 during the 13-point spurt, converting a pair of jumpers, while Stevenson contributed five points with a three-pointer and layup, and Rod Brown added a pair of free-throws.
The Shockers held UCF scoreless for almost seven minutes in the opening 20 minutes and went into halftime with a 33-25 advantage after Jamarius Burton was fouled on a three with 1.1 seconds to go and made all three free throws.
Burton led WSU in the first half with 10 points on 3-of-4 shooting, while Midtgaard went a flawless 3-for-3 from the floor, giving him a career-best six points.
Wichita State shot 48 percent from the field while holding UCF to 35 percent shooting in the opening frame.
Haynes-Jones scored six of the opening eight points for WSU in the second half, giving the Shockers a 43-33 lead after a layup with 16 minutes remaining.
Sparked by back-to-back treys from Aubrey Dawkins, UCF trimmed the WSU lead to 47-46 with 11:24 to go, but McDuffie netted six of the Shockers next eight points, including a four-point play after converting a three and making a free-throw after a UCF foul, building the Wichita State advantage to 55-50 with nine minutes remaining.
The Knights cut the lead to four at 57-53 when Dayon Griffin made a three-pointer, but McDuffie answered with an emphatic dunk, increasing the WSU lead to 59-53 with just over six minutes showing on the clock.
UCF didn't yield though, and utilized a 6-0 run to narrow the Shocker advantage to one at 63-62 with 2:46 to go, but a Dennis layup pushed the WSU lead back to three, 65-62, with just over two minutes remaining in regulation.
Wichita State went a perfect 8-of-8 at the foul line in the final two minutes of the game, securing the victory.
For the game, WSU shot 52 percent from the field and went a season-best 94 percent at the free-throw line, converting 17 of 18 attempts at the line. Wichita State also won the glass, outrebounding UCF, 35-22.
The Knights shot 42 percent from the floor and 45 percent from three-point range in the contest, but made just 14 of 20 free-throw shots for 70 percent.
Dawkins led UCF, netting 22 points.
UPCOMING GAMES