No. 3 Houston’s cold stretch proves costly in loss to Tennessee

Houston men’s basketball has been able to get away with unpleasant shooting stretches before. 

However, a nearly seven-and-a-half-minute scoring drought was too much to overcome for No. 3 Houston Tuesday night against No. 17 Tennessee, losing 76-73 and dropping to 6-1 on the season.

The Cougars were out of timeouts and trailing by four with 10 seconds remaining, and only a 3-point shot could keep their chances alive. 

Freshman guard Kingston Flemings delivered it, to cap off an 11-point surge across the final six minutes of the game. It was a scoring array that saw Flemings score on all three levels, in an attempt to keep Houston undefeated on the season.

Just last night, coach Kelvin Sampson stated Flemings had been in “the witness protection program,” after shooting a season-worst 3-for-11 with three turnovers.

Twenty-four hours later, he finished night two of the Players Era Festival with 25 points, with Houston needing every last one of them.

As long as its hallmarks are in place—the second-chance points, turnovers and offensive rebounding that sometimes extend possessions past an entire minute, the door is often left open for a closer to emerge. 

Despite Flemings’ late emergence, Tennessee’s 15-of-17 free throw shooting, including senior guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie’s 6-of-6 in the final 35 seconds, quelled any attempt to draw even.

Houston led for a majority of the first 30 minutes, but amid a 3-for-19 shooting drought where the Cougars at one point missed 11 straight shots, they saw their lead, once as large as 11 in the first half, slip away into a rare deficit.

Tennessee threw punches at Houston it didn’t have a response for, extending the lead to 51-46 before two free throws from senior guard Milos Uzan gave Houston its first points since the 15:46 mark of the second half.

Uzan was the only other Houston scorer in double-figures, and had one final opportunity to send the Cougars to a second consecutive overtime, heaving a three-quarter court shot that managed to draw glass. 

He finished with 17 points, a day after recording a career-high 26 against Syracuse.

Redshirt senior guard Emanuel Sharp was limited in the first half with two early fouls, only logging 21 minutes, a season-low.

Houston will look to finish the Players Era Festival with a winning record when it takes on Notre Dame on Wednesday at 2:30 PM CT in Las Vegas, Nev.