On a night that had a few blowouts among top teams, there were a couple of games that came down to the end and lived up to their billing. Xavier needing to hold off Missouri State 59-56 and Baylor knocking off Texas State 72-63 were two of them. But neither could top BYU’s trip to Houston, with former head coach Dave Rose right there to watch.
It wasn’t just the end result, either. It was how the battle of the Cougars ended.
First, BYU built up a 14-point lead more than halfway through the first half, using a few small runs to get there. Houston would get it down to seven at the break and hang right in there in the second half. Showing that winning DNA on a team with a number of new faces, they would get close a couple of times, but never over the hump. BYU always had an answer.
Until they didn’t, that is. Caleb Mills hit two free throws with 1:25 left to give Houston their first lead at 71-70. Houston had a chance to seal it after a BYU miss, but they couldn’t convert. Then it looked like the game was almost over.
Jake Toolson turned the ball over, and Nate Hinton looked like he would go in alone for a layup or dunk. It would have brought the house down as Houston would go up by three in front of their home crowd. He was far enough ahead of every BYU player that he couldn’t be fouled.
Then he carried the ball.
At first, the TV broadcast through a timeout was called, and rather inexplicably, as if perhaps BYU had finally called timeout and the referee was exceedingly slow in granting it. But that wasn’t the case – a timeout was called, but after Hinton had turned the ball over. BYU would get one more chance.
T.J. Haws, whose brother is the all-time leading scorer in the school’s proud history with over 2700 points, brought the ball up and drove to the right. He got up an off-balance shot well before the buzzer that bounced up, then took a friendly bounce in as time expired, and BYU had gone on the road for a big win. The game of the night had quite the ending.
Dave Rose, a Houston native and alum who played with the Phi Slamma Jama, was right there for it all, months after he stepped down as head coach.
It was clear he was happy for his former players. It’s a win that might well have some shelf life later in the year, but no matter what, gives this team a boost. It’s just the second time Houston has lost in this building as well.
Side Dishes
Other interesting results on the night: West Virginia pulled away from Pittsburgh 68-53 in the Backyard Brawl behind a big double-double from freshman Oscar Tshiebwe (20 points, 17 rebounds); Georgia Southern used a big second half to edge Radford 76-73; Florida State needed a second half rally to beat Western Carolina 79-74; Rhode Island got a nice win at home as they used a big first half to beat Alabama 93-79; UC Irvine went to Boise and knocked off Boise State 69-60; Utah held off Minnesota 73-69; and UCLA kept the Pac-12’s good start going by taking care of UNLV 71-54.
A transfer tampering case has been resolved, and Seton Hall has been penalized by the NCAA for it. The program is on three years of probation, will lose a scholarship next season, and will have limited recruiting for two years. This is why head coach Kevin Willard served a two-game suspension earlier this season and St. Peter’s head coach Shaheen Holloway, an assistant at the school at the time of the case, is in the midst of a four-game suspension. Current Pirate Taurean Thompson transferred to the school in 2017, and the NCAA learned that Holloway had well over 200 impermissible contacts with the forward’s mother for over nine months while he was still at Syracuse. Over a third of the call came after Thompson informed Syracuse he intended to transfer and the school denied his request to contact Seton Hall.
Georgia Tech, meanwhile, has filed an appeal of the penalties the NCAA recently levied on the program. The school has been banned from postseason play this season, and scholarship reductions as well as limits on official visits were imposed as well, all of which the school is appealing.
Tonight’s Menu
It’s a busy day of action on the hardwood, although the gridiron will still take center stage for college sports.
- Right out of the gate, we have a couple of games with some potential as Oakland visits Maryland and Ohio University travels to Philadelphia to play Villanova at the Wells Fargo Center (noon)
- A good mid-major matchup early on is Northern Iowa hosting Northern Colorado (1 p.m.)
- The River Hawk Invitational has another doubleheader on tap with Jacksonville taking on Dartmouth (1:30 p.m.), then Merrimack takes on host UMass-Lowell (4 p.m.)
- An interesting campus matchup in the Gotham Classic is Belmont’s visit to Boston College (2 p.m.)
- In Toronto, the James Naismith Classic is on tap at Scotiabank Arena, a tripleheader with Harvard taking on Buffalo (2:30 p.m.) followed by Tennessee battling Washington (5 p.m.) and St. Bonaventure taking on Rutgers (7:30 p.m.)
- Vermont’s latest road test is a trip to St. John’s (4 p.m.)
- The Islander Invitational continues with Stony Brook taking on UT Rio Grande Valley (5 p.m.) before North Dakota State plays host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (7:30 p.m.)
- Arkansas gets a tough test as Montana comes to Fayetteville (5 p.m.)
- The Spartan Invitational gets going with Tennessee Tech and Appalachian State (3:30), then Montana State battles host UNC Greensboro (6 p.m.)
- Creighton tries to bounce back from their loss at Michigan as they get a visit from Louisiana Tech (6 p.m.)
- Davidson tries to get their first win of the year as they host in-state rival UNCW, while old CAA rivals meet as George Mason hosts James Madison (7 p.m.)
- Butler puts their early undefeated mark on the line as they host Wofford (8 p.m.)
- Oregon State tries to bounce back from their loss to Oklahoma as they travel to Wyoming (9 p.m.)
- A pair of 3-0 teams meet at Maples Pavilion as Santa Clara visits Stanford (10 p.m.)
- An intriguing late game is on tap as USC travels to Nevada (11 p.m.)
