University of Tulsa
Houston
Tulsa Edged By Houston 69-67
1/20/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 20, 2007
Box Score | Notes
TULSA, Okla. - Houston weathered a furious Tulsa comeback, including a potential game-winning 3-point attempt by Charles Ramsdell at the buzzer, for a 69-67 victory on Saturday.
Houston (7-9, 2-2 Conference USA) snapped a 15-game home winning streak by Tulsa (12-5, 2-2).
Dion Dowell scored 21 points and Robert McKiver added 20 for Houston. Those two combined to make 10 3-pointers, including 5-of-8 by Dowell.
Their outside shooting prowess kept Tulsa at bay for most of the contest, as the Cougars led throughout, had a 33-27 halftime lead and a 65-56 advantage with 1:16 to play.
Ben Uzoh led the way for Tulsa with 18 points, while Ramsdell added 13 points and 10 rebounds and Ray Reese had 11 points.The Cougars connected on 12-of-27 three pointers for the game and finished shooting 43-percent from the field, while Tulsa connected on 42-percent. The Hurricane out-rebounded Houston by 24 boards, 46-22, but suffered 10 more turnovers than the Cougars, 17-7.
Oliver Lafayette's three-pointer with 1:41 left gave UH a 63-55 lead, and his two free throws put the Cougars up by nine with 1:15 remaining in the contest. From there, Tulsa's Darold Crow knocked down a three-pointer at the 1:03 mark remaining to make it 65-59. Houston's McKiver and Lafayette each missed the front-end of one-one-ones, while Uzoh's layup with 0:38 pulled the Hurricane to within four points, 65-61.
Lafayette hit a freebie to put Houston up 66-61, but Rod Earls' three with 0:28 left cut the Cougars lead to two points, 66-64. Lafayette then hit his next two free throws pushing the lead back to four points, 68-64 at the 0:25 mark. With 0:11 remaining, Uzoh knocked down a trey from the right corner to bring the Hurricane to within one point, 68-67. McKiver made one-of-two free throws with 0:07 left, leaving one last chance for the Hurricane. With no timeouts remaining, Uzoh took the rebound off the second McKiver miss and was cut off on his drive to the basket, pitching it back to Ramsdell for the final three-point try.
Houston built an 11-point lead 41-30 on a jumper by Robert McKiver at the 16:55 mark of the second half. The Cougars had a 12-point lead at 52-40, but the Hurricane cut it to six points on a layup by Uzoh with 9:08 remaining in the game. Tulsa cut into Houston's 10-point lead of 56-46, trimming it to six points, 56-50, at the 5:30 mark on a five-foot jumper by Sam Mitchell.
Tulsa's Reese kept the Hurricane close with eight consecutive points in a one-minute span early in the second half.
In the first half, the Cougars held onto the lead the entire half after jumping out to an 8-2 lead and had its largest lead of nine points, 23-14, at the 10:46 mark. The Hurricane cut it to four points three times, 23-19, 29-25 and again at 31-27 on a Ramsdell jumper with 0:34 left in the first half .
Houston's Oliver Lafayette hit a jumper in the lane as time expired to put the Cougars ahead at halftime 33-27.
Houston converted 6-of-12 three-pointers in the first half and shot 44-percent from the field overall, while Tulsa was cold from the field hitting on only 39-percent. The Hurricane couldn't continue its hot free throw shooting (40-of-43) from a week ago at home against UTEP.
Dowell led the Cougars in the first half with 15 points, including 3-of-5 from three-point range.
Tulsa will return to action on Wednesday night as the Hurricane travels to take on the 15th-ranked Memphis Tigers at 8 pm at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee. The game can be seen on television locally on Cox Cable-Channel 70.
