The final dress rehearsal before conference play begins for all college basketball teams.

College basketball report Week 8: Conference play looms

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TEXAS LONGHORNS (10-2)

Last week (1-0): W-HPU 89-58

This week: Saturdayvs. Baylor

The Texas Longhorns came away victorious in an 89-58 win over the High Point Panthers, Monday night, inside the Frank C. Erwin Jr. Center in Austin. Junior guard Jase Febres scored a game-high 16 points, as sophomore guard Andrew Jones added in 13 points and four assists in his first start following a battle with leukemia.

Winners of six of their last seven, the Longhorns will open their Big-12 schedule with a Texas Showdown against the Baylor Bears.

TEXAS A&M AGGIES (6-5)

Last week (1-0): W - Texas Southern 58-55

This week: Saturday vs. Arkansas

In a surprisingly competitive contest, the Texas A&M Aggies outlasted the Texas Southern Tigers in a three-point victory, Monday night, inside the Reed Arena in College Station. While recording 10 points, senior forward Josh Nebo was a dominant force in the middle for A&M as he tallied 15 rebounds and four blocks in the win.

After losing four straight, the Texas A&M Aggies will enter the SEC conference play riding a three-game winning streak ahead of their match against Arkansas on Saturday.

Houston Cougars (10-3)

Last week (1-0): W - Washington 75-71

This week: Friday vs. UCF

The Houston Cougars closed out the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic with a Christmas Day victory over No. 21 Washington Huskies Wednesday night. It was a come from behind win for the Cougars, as Houston trailed by 14 points early in the 1st half.

Behind a 19-point performance from both Caleb Mills and Fabian White Jr., UH went on to outscore the Huskies 44-35 in the second half to complete the comeback win.

With the upset over Washington, the Cougars won the mid-season Hawaiian tournament with White taking home Most Outstanding Player honors after averaging 14.6 points and 5.6 rebounds during the three-game tournament.

As they head back to Houston riding a four-game winning streak, the Cougars will open their American Athletic Conference play with a showdown against UCF on Friday.

RICE OWLS (8-5)

Last week (0-1): L - Sam Houston 75-61

This week: Thursday vs. Marshall, Saturday Western KY

The Rice Owls closed their non-conference schedule with a 75-61 loss to the Sam Houston State BearKats, Sunday afternoon inside the Tudor Fieldhouse in Houston. The Owls struggled out of the gate on the offensive end, and had no answer on the defensive end giving up 27 points (11-17 FG & 13 Rebs) to Kai Mitchell, Sam Houston's senior big man who scored a game-high in the win.

Following the loss, the Rice Owls will open their conference play against Marshall on Thursday, inside the Cam Henderson Center in West Virginia.

BAYLOR BEARS (10-1)

Last week (1-0): W - Jackson State 83-57

This week: Saturday vs. Texas

The sizzling No. 6 Baylor Bears continued their early-season success with an 83-57 win over the Jackson State Tigers, Monday night, in Waco. After coming out of the gates missing their first six shots, Baylor closed out the first half on a 32-6 run to take a 48-24 by halftime.

Four players scored in double figures for the Bears, as Jared Butler recorded 18 points while MaCio Teague finished the night with 16 points and Davion Mitchell had 14. Closing out their non-conference schedule on a nine-game win streak, the Baylor Bears will host the Texas Longhorns on Saturday to begin their conference play.

TCU HORNED FROGS (9-3)

Last week (1-0): W - George Mason 87-53

This week: Saturday vs Iowa

Desmond Bane proved to be too much for the George Mason Patriots to handle, as the senior guard scored a season-high 30 points in an 87-53 win for the TCU Horned Frogs. It was a wire-to-wire victory for TCU with Bane scoring 21 points in the first half shooting 5-for-7 from behind the arc.

Following the win, the Horned Frogs will open their Big-12 schedule on Saturday against Iowa State inside the Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth.

TEXAS TECH RED RAIDERS (9-3)

Last week: (1-0) W - CSU Bakersfield 73-58

This week: Saturday vs. Oklahoma State

The Texans Tech Red Raiders won their fourth consecutive game in a convincing 73-58 victory over the California State Roadrunners on Sunday. As a whole, the Red Raiders stayed hot throughout the game, as Texas Tech shot 49.0% from the field, and a blazing 53% from behind the arc. Both Jahmi'us Ramsey and Kyler Edwards registered 20 points apiece, as the only players to score in double digits for Texas Tech.

Following the win, The Red Raiders will open their Big-12 Conference play against the Oklahoma State Cowboys, Saturday, inside the United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, TX.

SMU MUSTANGS (9-2)

Last week (0-0): No Games Scheduled

This week: Wednesday vs USF, Saturday Vanderbilt

With no games on the schedule, SMU will return to the floor on Wednesday, January 1st, for a New Year showdown against the University of South Florida Bulls.

LSU TIGERS (8-4)

Last week (1-0): W - Liberty 74-54

This week: Saturday vs Tennessee

Following back-to-back losses to East Tennessee and USC, the LSU Tigers closed out their none-conference games with a 74-57 win over the Liberty Flames on Sunday. Behind a 14-point performance from Darius Day shooting 54% from the floor, and a dozen coming from Skylar Mays, the Tigers handed Liberty their first loss of the season.

LSU will prepare to open the SEC play on Saturday in a match against the Tennessee Volunteers inside the Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN.

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Jalen Green does it again! Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images.

Jalen Green scored 27 points to lead the Houston Rockets to a 110-92 win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night.

It was the Rockets' ninth straight win, their longest winning streak since 2019.

At 36-35, Houston is now just a half game behind Golden State for the final spot in the NBA Play-In Tournament.

“For sure, I’m looking at it,” Green said of the standings. “I was watching the Warriors last night. We’re making a push, and we’re executing so we’ve just got to stay the course.”

Green entered Monday tied for fourth in the NBA in scoring in March with 27.8 points per game on 51.4% shooting. Against Portland, he made 9 of 26 shots, including 4 of 12 from 3.

“He was kind of forcing it a little bit early and looked a little anxious, but he grinded it out and played the right way,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “It was huge for him to come out in the second half like that.”

Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr. was out, serving a one-game suspension for his Saturday night fight with Jazz guard Kris Dunn. In his place, Jock Landale had a season-high 17 points and added nine rebounds.

“His energy really got us back in the game,” Udoka said. “His energy has been huge lately, and we really needed it tonight with a few guys struggling early.”

Houston outscored Portland 33-20 in the third quarter, taking an 80-71 lead into the fourth after trailing 51-47 at halftime.

Portland suffered its seventh straight loss and fell to 4-13 since the All-Star break.

Dalano Banton led the Blazers with 28 points and 11 rebounds off the bench, while Scoot Henderson added 15 points.

“We need to keep our defensive intensity up,” Henderson said. “That’s going to give us a chance every night — defensive intensity, moving the ball and just making the game easier for ourselves and not trying to one-on-one the whole game because we can’t win like that.”

In Saturday night’s loss to Denver, Portland became the second team to start five rookies since NBA box scores started tracking starters in the 1971-72 season. The Blazers started the same five rookies on Monday night.

Portland briefly held a nine-point lead in the first quarter but entered the second quarter down 28-25.

“I thought we had a really good first half and had some good moments in that third quarter, but the game kind of turned,” Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said. “They picked up their defensive pressure, and we just didn’t respond well to it. Give them credit. They turned it up when they needed to, defensively, against a young group.”

The Blazers were missing Deandre Ayton (left elbow tendinitis), Anfernee Simons (left knee tendinitis), Malcolm Brogdon (right elbow tendinitis) and Jerami Grant (right hamstring strain).

UP NEXT

Trail Blazers: At Atlanta on Wednesday night.

Rockets: Visit Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.

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