No. 7 Houston will close out Big 12 play Saturday in its first look this season at Oklahoma State.
The Cougars (25-5, 13-4) seek a third straight victory after a three-game losing streak but travel to Stillwater knowing they cannot catch conference champ Arizona. The No. 2 Wildcats have just two setbacks and were aided by a 73-66 road win over coach Kelvin Sampson’s squad in Texas two weeks ago.
Houston’s immediate task at hand is going up to the Sooner State, beating the Cowboys (18-12, 6-11) and securing the second spot in the Big 12 before the conference tournament begins Tuesday in Kansas City, Mo.
The Cougars own a one-game lead over third-place Texas Tech, which is 12-5 in the league standings and finishes the regular season at BYU late Saturday night.
In its home finale Wednesday night, Houston seemed to sleepwalk through the game and trailed or were tied for almost the entire first 33 minutes of the matchup with Baylor.
The home side finally took the lead when Emanuel Sharp, who scores 15.9 per game, sank a wing three-pointer with 7:16 remaining for his team’s first lead.
That three-ball seemed to wake up the group as it went on a 23-6 run to close the game and happily send the Cougar faithful home following an emotional Senior Night.
A likely NBA lottery pick, Kingston Flemings (club-best 16.6 points) produced a game-high 21. The San Antonio freshman added seven assists, three rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot.
Sampson was emotional afterward when discussing his role and the relationship he forges with his players.
“I’m not their father, but in a lot of ways I am a father figure, a mentor,” Sampson said. “And as a mentor and father figure, you just bust your buttons, you stick your chest out, and you look at them and your mind races back and you think about his lowest moments, his toughest days, and then how he came through all of that and made it into the person you are.
“I have spent more time with these guys than their parents since they have been on campus.”
In winning two of its past three contests, Oklahoma State topped West Virginia and stunned red-hot UCF in a pair of thrilling overtime outings that it ended up winning by seven points both times.
The Cowboys are 2-1 in overtime thus far.
Second-year coach Steve Lutz said his team stepped up in the second half by winning the rebounding battle and getting to the foul line, keys to beating the Knights after some poor shooting in the first 20 minutes in Orlando, Fla.
“When you’re not consistent with your three-point shooting, you’ve got to find other ways to get extra possessions and get more points,” Lutz said. “Tonight, we did it by getting to the free-throw line … and we were plus-12 on the boards (in the second half).”
Lutz took pride in his team’s ability to bounce back after being pounded 91-68 at Cincinnati last Saturday.
Lutz said: “We put ourselves in a position to win (over UCF) on Sunday and Monday because of our practice habits, our competitiveness and our defensive effort.”
Senior Anthony Roy leads the Cowboys with 16.7 points per game, while Parsa Fallah scores 14.7 and tops with six rebounds.
