A TOUCHDOWN OF A TIME!

Former Texans player gets taste of Astros road-hate up close, leaves 2 fans with big smiles

Former Texans player gets taste of Astros road-hate up close, leaves 2 fans with big smiles
Arian Foster catches an Astros game in Seattle. Composite image by Brandon Strange.

Sometimes the stars align to make for a pretty cool moment. And when you can throw in some unintentional, lighthearted fun: even better.

Hey Texans fans- remember Arian Foster? Of course you do. There’s only been about 6 great Texans in the history of the franchise, and he’s certainly one of them. Who are the other 5? Andre Johnson, JJ Watt, and you can fight about the rest.

Over the weekend Foster, who also goes by the musical alias “Bobby Feeno,” realized that he had purchased too many tickets to the Astros-Mariners matchup on Saturday. With no way to get a refund, Foster offered them on Twitter with the caveat, the best response would win them.

Shortly after, Foster announced the tickets were spoken for. For the moment, that’s all we knew. More on that in a minute.

In the meantime, Foster did some fun tweets reacting to the experience of being at the game.

He gave us a firsthand glimpse of the crowd. We can immediately see at least one (seemingly cold) Astros fan in the crowd.

Then he showed off his Ken Griffey Jr. stadium giveaway bobblehead.

Next, he got to hear some road hatred from the Seattle faithful when Jose Altuve walked to the plate.

After the game, Foster posed for a pic with the lucky couple he had given the tickets to. They were lifelong Mariners fans who are both fighting cancer.

The gentleman, named Dayne, was quick to express his appreciation to Foster after the game. But maybe TOO quick…

Whoops. The misspelling of “Arian” as “Aiden” was enough to make Dayne’s son cringe.

Foster was unfazed by the typo, though, and added to the pleasantries on the original Twitter thread.

The son assured Arian he’d help his dad Dayne with his spelling next time.

And if the night wasn’t perfect enough, they got to watch a vintage Justin Verlander performance on the way to a 4-0 Astros victory. Ok, maybe Mariners fans wouldn’t appreciate that AS much, but they’ll always have the memories and the Griffey, Jr. bobblehead!

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Houston wins again! Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images.

Emanuel Sharpe scored 26 points, LJ Cryer had 20 and second-ranked Houston stifled No. 17 BYU in a 74-54 victory Friday night that moved the Cougars into the Big 12 Tournament championship game for the second consecutive season.

Milos Uzan added 14 points and Mylik Wilson pulled down 13 rebounds, helping the tournament's top seed jump to a big early lead and roll into Saturday night's matchup with Arizona on a 12-game win streak.

Houston (29-4) played without J'Wan Roberts, its leading rebounder, after he sprained his ankle early in the second half of the Cougars' quarterfinal win over Colorado. Roberts watched from the bench with his right foot in a walking boot.

He got to watch quite a defensive show by one of the nation's best.

Houston forced BYU to miss its first nine shots, including seven from beyond the arc, where coach Kevin Young's team had set a Big 12 Tournament record with 18 made 3s on its way to 96 points in a quarterfinal win over Iowa State. That nearly seven-minute lull allowed Houston to roar to a 15-0 lead that it spent the rest of the game protecting.

BYU trimmed its 40-21 halftime deficit to 13 midway through the second half but never threatened to come all the way back.

Keba Keita had 14 points and 12 rebounds for BYU. Dawson Baker scored 11 points and Richie Saunders had 10.

Takeaways

BYU still has not won a conference tournament title since 2001 in the Mountain West.

Houston lived up to its billing as the nation's No. 1 team in defensive efficiency.

Key moment

Sharpe converted a four-point play with 13:40 left in the first half to give Houston its 15-0 lead.

Key stat

Houston has beaten BYU by an average of 25.5 points in their two games this season.

Up next

Houston will play the Wildcats for the Big 12 title.

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