The Forever Coogs find a way to win an incredible game at Fertitta Center, 79-76 over Once A Bronco in the second round to advance to the Sweet 16 of The Basketball Tournament.
Former UH forward Devin Davis hit the game-winning free throw and scored a team-high 20 points and six rebounds.
The Coogs had a slow start to the game, down 13-3. However, Houston took the lead with just 42 seconds to go in the first half on a three from Davis.
The Forever Coogs found a way to come back and take the lead with a halftime score of 36-32. A couple of crucial shots brought cheers to the Fertitta Center crowd.
Davis led the Coogs with 10 first-half points.
Once again down to start the second half, the Forever Coogs were down double digits 56-45 towards the end of the third quarter.
Former starting forward for the 2021 Final Four team Justin Gorham hit a big three followed by another trey by Shawndre Jones to keep the Coogs in it.
Davis got a layup to go and then followed it up with an and one on another basket to cut the lead down to six at the end of the third quarter, 62-56.
Credit: The Basketball Tournament
Gorham made a tough fadeaway layup to bring the lead just to four as the crowd started to get into it. Houston’s eighth-leading scorer all time Rob Gray hit another layup as it became a one possession game with just over seven minutes to go.
However, Once a Bronco continued to be in the lead and extended it to 69-62. Gray hit another big three to cut into the deficit before the four-minute mark.
Forever Coogs were down 71-65 before the shot clock turned off for the Elam ending with a target score of 79.
Former Houston forward Tashawn Thomas made a couple of free throws that cut the lead down to four again and the Cougars got a critical turnover with a steal from Davis. Wes Van Beck threw down a slam off the turnover and the lead was back down to a two-point game at 73-71 as the crowd came back to life.
Thomas got a monstrous layup to tie it up at 73 but missed the and-one and had a lazy turnover on the next possession.
The Coogs had a couple of missed opportunities towards the end that almost came back to hurt them, but they stepped up on the defensive side over and over to have a chance.
Gorham eventually shot two free throws that brought the lead down to just one point at 76-75.
Gray stepped up huge with the defensive rebound and the go-ahead layup for the 77-76 lead, and the Coogs made a couple of free throws to close it out after multiple defensive stops as Once a Bronco kept trying the three for the win.
“We wanted to stick to the culture, we know what it takes to win, we brought those little habits to close out the game and it feels good to have an atmosphere like that,” said Gorham.
The Forever Coogs defense was in the spotlight when it mattered the most and constantly got stops at the end. Both teams did not shoot particularly great as Once a Bronco were 43% from the field and Forever Coogs were 45%.
However, the difference was +14 in rebounds for the Coogs as well as the 33 bench points compared to just four for Boise State.
“It came down to toughness, it wasn’t the prettiest game, it was tough for all of us but it came down to defense,” said Davis.
There were times when the Coogs were down double digits in both halves but fought back.
“We had a timeout and we knew this wasn’t enough, everybody looked at each other and said we gotta come out and play like we want to win, we were playing like we wanted to lose,” said Gorham, who had 12 points and eight rebounds in the win.
Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson has been a vocal supporter of the Houston TBT team and was in attendance for the game.
“It was even more fun seeing Big Samp (Kelvin Sampson) on the sidelines. At one point, he was about to walk out, but we’re not going to talk about that,” said Gorham.
The crowd was fully invested towards the end as the Cougars fought back and made it happen.
“That was fun to coach and it was a culture win. I never thought I would be in a coaching position at my university,” said head coach Lawrence Paye who played for UH in 2011-12.
The Forever Coogs (#2 seed) will now face Challenge ALS (#5 seed) in the Houston regional final on Tuesday at 8 pm central at Fertitta Center.