Houston Basketball Advances To Sixth Straight Sweet 16 in another 2nd round thriller

In an incredible big-time showdown, 1 seed Houston basketball took down 8 seed Gonzaga, 81-76, to head back to the Sweet 16 for the 6th straight year, the new longest streak in the nation. The Cougars ended Gonzaga’s Sweet 16 streak at nine straight, which was the longest entering the contest. 

“Two of the great cultures in our country are Gonzaga and Houston, and that’s one of the reasons why they’ve been to the Sweet 16 nine in a row. I mean, who does that? Please don’t take them for granted. They’re just awesome. I have so much respect for them,” Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson said. “This is number six for us, and I hope people don’t take this for granted either. The players at those schools have to be high-character kids that care more about winning than statistics.”

Both programs are the epitome of consistency, and Houston, in a game that went down to the wire, came out on top in that battle. 

“That’s why winning the game is significant. It’s not just winning the game. It’s beating a great program like Gonzaga,” Sampson said. 

Graduate guard LJ Cryer put up a career high 30 points, and hit six 3-pointers, including a couple clutch buckets down the stretch. Even Gonzaga head coach Mark Few mentioned postgame Cryer was spectacular. Graduate forward J’Wan Roberts added 18 points (15 of them in the second half), along with eight rebounds and five assists.

Naismith defensive player of the year finalist Joseph Tugler had a crucial 10 point and 11 rebound double-double. Graduate guard Mylik Wilson’s rebounding at the end shouldn’t go unnoticed either.

UH was up by 11 at 76-65 with just over four minutes to go after a hook shot from Roberts. After a couple of missed shots from Houston and senior forward Graham Ike making free throws on the other end plus an and-one cut the lead down to just four with 1:18 left. 

A miss at the line from UH followed by a turnover by junior point guard Milos Uzan on a trap eventually brought the advantage to only one after both free throws were made by Bulldogs senior guard Khalif Battle. Gonzaga went a perfect 15/15 from the line in the game. 

Now a 77-76 game with just 21 seconds left, all the Cougars had to do was successfully inbound and make both shots at the free throw line. Houston was able to do that effectively as Cryer, who shoots around 92% from the line, made both, which got the lead back to 79-76. 

Now with only 14 seconds left, UH needed one last defensive stop to hold onto their season. The Cougars showed strong intensity and effort on defense all year, which led to their number one scoring defense in the country. That came out on top as UH put a strong trap in the corner on Battle, whose shot was blocked by senior forward Ja’Vier Francis. Uzan got the rebound and then was fouled, which put the game away as he drained both free throws. 

“We had a big enough lead. Made a couple of boneheaded plays down the stretch, but I’m not going to sit here and go through that this time of year. It’s about advancing,” Sampson said. 

In a matchup of top defense vs top offense, the defense claims victory in Houston basketball.

Gonzaga was one of the highest rated teams in the country, ranked 8th overall in KenPom, something that Sampson agrees with. This was one of the best second round matchups seen in recent NCAA tournament history, and lived up to the hype, but it was still too early in March Madness for this to happen. 

“That was a high-level,1-8 game because they were not an 8 seed. That was a game that would have been awesome in the Elite Eight or Final Four,” Sampson said.

The Bulldogs came in with the 2nd best scoring offense in the nation (86.4 PPG), but the Cougars held them to 10 points below their average. Houston also forced 11 turnovers, and got a crucial 15 points out of them.

Senior point guard Ryan Nembhard dished out 11 assists, but the Cougars got him to turn the ball over five times. UH had their rebounding success, and were +8 on the offensive glass, resulting in 20 second chance points.

Houston got out to a strong start and took a 33-19 lead through 15 minutes. UH maintained their double-digit lead until the final two minutes and never trailed in the game.

The reason it got so close was the free throw shooting difference and Ike putting up 23 points in the second half.

The Cougars have had a history of thriller second round matchups in the NCAA tournament during this run of six straight round of 16 appearances. 

“It seems like we’re always playing a really good team in this Round of 32,” Sampson said.

While the first Sweet 16 appearance for Houston basketball under Kelvin Sampson was in 2019 where UH had a strong win over 11 seed Ohio State 74-59, the nail-biting finishes started in 2018, when the Cougars came up on the losing side of a buzzer beater by Michigan’s Jordan Poole. In Houston’s 2021 Final Four run, the two seed Cougars took on 10 seed Rutgers. 

Houston basketball was in fact down 58-49 with under five minutes to go and needed an incredible tip in layup with the foul from at that time freshman guard Tramon Mark to take the late lead with just 24 seconds left. Similar to this Gonzaga game, Houston held strong defensively on the final possession in the 63-60 win. 

In 2022, five seed UH took on four seed Illinois in a game that was tight until five minutes to go when Houston was up 54-49. This second round game featured an iconic save from then senior forward Fabian White Jr on the sideline that resulted in a wide open layup before White drained a three on the next possession in a 68-53 victory.

The next season where Houston basketball was a number one seed for the first time since 1984, they faced nine seed Auburn in Alabama. The Cougars were down 10 at the half before exploding for 50 points in the second half and pulled away in the last 10 minutes for the 81-64 win. 

Last season, UH faced eight seed Texas A&M in a game where Houston would give up a late lead quite similarly to this one. The Cougars were up 12 with 1:52 left that went down to just three with 1.2 seconds left. The Aggies hit a game-tying buzzer beating three, and Houston basketball had to grind to a 100-95 overtime win. 

Either way, the Cardiac Coogs came through again this year in the second round. 

“Until you experience them live and in person, they’re something. Kelvin has got them not only playing just exceptional defense, it’s harder than heck to run anything and consistently get any good looks,” Few said. “For the most part they hit a lot of tough shots and shots we wanted them to take.”