San Diego State stuns No. 6 Houston in overtime
This is not the start to the season Kelvin Sampson envisioned.
A preseason national championship favorite, the Houston Cougars dropped to 4-3 with a stunning 73-70 overtime loss to San Diego State in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
The Cougars finished the week 1-2 at the Player Era Festival, with two overtime losses. They lost to No. 9 Alabama 85-80 on Tuesday before beating Notre Dame 65-54 on Wednesday.
The loss to unranked San Diego State (4-2) will surely drop the Cougars out of the top 10 in the national rankings. The Aztecs lost to unranked Oregon 78-68 on Wednesday to drop into the third-place game against Houston.
Emanuel Sharp led Houston with 23 points and LJ Cryer added 21. Houston's trio of big men — Ja'Vier Francis, JoJo Tugler and J'Wan Roberts — dominated the boards (27 total rebounds), but struggled to score. They combined for just 11 points on 5-of-17 shooting.
Sampson shortened his bench, going with a rotation of seven players. But the bench did not produce, scoring just 7 points compared to 16 for San Diego State.
Fouling continues to be a problem for Houston. They committed 21 personal fouls against San Diego State, and the Aztecs shot 27 free throws — 10 more than Houston. In their loss to Alabama, the Cougars committed 30 fouls and both Sharp and Milos Uzan fouled out.
Houston has a week off to prepare for a home game vs. Butler. The Cougars won't be tested again until Big 12 play starts on Dec. 30 vs. Oklahoma State.
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Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. One of his favorite memories was covering the 1999 Fiesta Bowl - the first BCS National Championship Game - at Sun Devil Stadium.