Houston keeps TU winless on road
BY Staff Reports
Thursday, January 20, 2011
1/20/11 at 6:10 AM
HOUSTON - Tulsa's chase for an elusive road victory will continue following a 64-57 loss at Houston on Wednesday night.
The Cougars ended the Conference USA contest by scoring nine of the final 11 points in the game's last four minutes.
Tulsa (9-9 overall, 2-2 in C-USA) has lost all five of its road games this season - all by 10 points or fewer - and will try to break the skid in Saturday's contest at Tulane.
What would it take to get over the hump in games away from home?
"Certainly a road win," Tulsa coach Doug Wojcik said. "We're pretty good at home. We're 0-5 now (on the road). When you look at it, they were all tight games, minus the Arizona State game.
"(If we don't) get it done when it comes to crunch time or get a lead and can't build a lead or steady the lead, these road woes will continue."
Tulsa scored the game's first eight points and led 20-8 after Jordan Clarkson's basket with 12:36 before going ice cold from the field.
The Hurricane missed nine of 10 shots and was 1-of-4 from the free-throw line as Houston put together a 20-3 run to swing the scoreboard in its direction.
"It's the same story with every road game," Wojcik said. "We have to start taking a look at ourselves from the inside. We get off to a great start again ... but you don't build on it."
The Hurricane led 30-29 at halftime.
After Bryson Pope was benched after picking up his third foul with 18:03 remaining, the Cougars scored 11 straight points.
How important was the sophomore point guard on this night? When he returned, TU scored nine consecutive points for a 43-42 lead.
Neither team led by more than three points the rest of the way until the final 17 seconds.
Steven Idlet's dunk with 1:41 remaining cut Houston's advantage to 58-57. But Houston gathered an offensive rebound after a miss and Adam Brown banked in a jump-stop shot with 29.3 seconds left to make it 60-57.
Justin Hurtt was whistled for a charge on Tulsa's next possession and the Cougars made free throws down the stretch to win.
Free throws hurt the Hurricane. The team connected on only 11-of-20 shots from the stripe.
Hurtt ended with a game-high 20 points. Idlet had 14 and Pope ended with 13. The rest of the team managed only 10 points.
Houston (11-6, 3-1) won for the fourth time in its last five outings. Zamal Nixon finished with 14 points for the Cougars.
Up next
At Tulane
2 p.m. Saturday
Radio: KRMG am740, fm102.3
