Uzan Says “U Can” and Cougars move on to Elite 8
By Nick Jenkinson/Excel H Sports
photos by: Tony Harper/Excel H Sports/Indiana Sports Network
Houston’s Mylik Wilson goes tumbling down
The Top Seed Houston Cougars held off the #4 Seed Purdue Boilermakers 62-60 Friday Night in the NCAA Tournament Midwest Region Semifinal at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Houston called timeout with 2.8 seconds left and had the ball out of bounds underneath their own basket. Milos Uzan inbounded the ball to Joseph Tugler eight feet from the basket. Tugler saw that Uzan was wide open underneath and bounced-passed the ball to him and he laid it in with just under a second left to give Houston the win and advance to the Elite 8 on Sunday facing the #2 Seed Tennessee Volunteers at 2:20 PM on CBS.
Joseph Tugler
Milos Uzan setting up the play
Houston is 33-4 on the season and made their 6th consecutive Sweet 16 and heads to the Elite 8 for the third time in five years. The Cougars made the final four in 2021 losing to Baylor in the Semifinals at Lucas Oil Stadium. The Cougars will carry a 16-game winning streak into the Elite 8 which is the nation’s longest losing their last game on February 1. Purdue ends the year 24-12 after reaching the National Championship game a season ago falling to Connecticut in Glendale, Arizona; where our own Shawn Martin covered the Championship.
TKR battles Tugler and J’Wan Roberts
Houston stalled down the stretch wasting a 10-point lead and only making one basket in the final eight minutes before Usan’s game winner. Houston missed two shots in the final five seconds as replay review confirmed that Purdue knocked the ball out of bounds and Houston had the ball underneath their own basket. Trey Kaufman-Renn scored on a dunk and then block LJ Cryer’s shot with 1:17 to go. Cam Hiede hit a three with 35 seconds left that tied the game at 60-60.
Camden Heide for Three
Usan led Houston with 22 points and Emmanuel Sharp added 17 points. J’Wan Roberts pulled down 12 rebounds and leading scorer LJ Cryer was held to 5 points on 2-13 shooting. Houston finished the game 23-61 from the field for 37%, 9-23 from three-point range for 39% and 7-11 from the free throw line for 63%. Houston pulled down 38 rebounds, dished out 16 assists, 4 steals, 1 block and committed 7 turnovers.
Loyer goes under Joseph Tugler
Fletcher Loyer led Purdue with 16 points and Trey Kaufman-Renn added 14 points. Braden Smith dished out 15 assists and scored 7 points. Purdue finished the game 21-52 from the field for 40%, 8-27 from three-point range for 29% and 10-12 from the free throw line for 83%. Purdue pulled down 29 rebounds, dished out 20 assists, 4 steals, 2 blocks and committed 7 turnovers.
Camden Heide scored nine points on three of six from behind the arc while Myles Colvin scored seven points on three of nine from the field and one of six from the three-point arc and C. J. Cox scored seven points on two of five from the field and collected five rebounds.
Purdue led 31-29 at halftime and Houston outscored Purdue 33-29 in the second half. The Tournament has not seen many last second dramatics, but this one was with the Cougars squandering a double-digit lead and Purdue which had the majority of the crowd with just an hour drive Northwest of Indianapolis had the chances to take the game to overtime. Every March it’s all about survive and advance and for Houston they did just that and for Milos Uzan is game winner will be the latest in a long line of March Madness moments that we will be seeing for a long long time.
For the game, Houston was 23 of 61 from the field for 37.7% percent, 9 of 23 from behind the arc for 39% while the Cougars hauled in 38 rebounds, 16 being offensive boards, assisted 16 times of 23 made baskets and turned the ball over only seven times.
For the game, Purdue made 21 of 62 field goals from the field for 40.4%, 8 of 27 three-point shots for 29.6% percent,
10 of 12 from the charity stripe while collecting 29 rebounds and assisted twenty times on those 21 made field goals.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.