HOUSTON – Playing in the NCAA Tournament just two miles from campus, the stage was set for the Houston Cougars to have an advantage over Illinois on Thursday night.
Problem was, they couldn’t get their shots to fall.
Houston was limited to its lowest point total of the season in a 65-55 loss to Illinois in the South Region semifinals, a gut-wrenching ending for last year’s national runner-up.
“We gave it our all, we played hard, it was just one of those days, nothing was going in the rim,” Houston’s Chris Cenac Jr. said.
Players openly wept in the locker room and at the podium as they discussed the abrupt end to a season that saw the Cougars reach the Sweet 16 for a seventh consecutive time.
“Sometimes it’s not your night on the offensive end,” star freshman Kingston Flemings said. “We were getting good shots, shots that we expect to make… we were getting the shots that we wanted, noncontested, but sometimes it doesn’t swing that way.”
A 3-pointer by Flemings, who is expected to be an NBA lottery pick this summer, got Houston within 2 points at halftime. But things went wrong quickly early in the second half.
The Illini were up by one early in the half when they broke it open with a 17-0 run for a 44-26 lead with about 12 minutes left. Jake Davis scored five points during the burst, including a 3-pointer, and David Mirkovic and Ben Humrichous capped it with consecutive 3s.
The Cougars missed seven consecutive shots as Illinois built its lead. When Milos Uzan finally ended Houston’s drought with a 3-pointer with 11:20 left, it had been almost seven minutes since the team had scored.
While the offensive struggles were Houston’s biggest problem, senior Emanuel Sharp was disappointed in the defensive execution, too.
“Our whole defense is based on a good pick-and-roll coverage, so when we don’t get our coverage calls right, our defense kind of breaks down,” he said. “So I think we had a couple of those and they capitalized on each one. I think that really hurt us to start the second half.”
Flemings had 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting and Uzan made just 2 of 11 shots. But they were far from the only Cougars who struggled offensively as the team shot just 34%.
Flemings expected Houston to fare better in the friendly environment. But noted that a great crowd can’t do much if the team isn’t having a good night.
“Yeah, it’s in Houston, but at the end of the day it’s hardwood, 94 feet,” he said. “That’s a great team out there. Kudos to them… hopefully they can go win it all, but they were better than us tonight, and that’s all it takes in March Madness.”
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
