The American Athletic Conference Player of the Week winner, Quentin Grimes, ended the game with 10 points (4-8 FG, 1-3 3PT), but the sophomore guard set the tone early for the Houston Cougars.

Grimes opened the game scoring the first two out of three baskets for the Cougars, which gave way to an early 14-2 lead within the first five minutes of the period. Houston never relinquished the lead in a wire-to-wire 71-63 victory over the University of Texas at Arlington Mavericks, Wednesday night, inside the Fertitta Center in Houston. With the win, the Cougars have won four consecutive games including five of their last six.

It was an outstanding performance by Nate Hinton, who recorded a career-high 25 points (9-15 FG, 4-8 3PT) to go along with 10 rebounds in the win — his fourth double-double on the young season.

"I've been focused more but mainly on defense," Hinton said. "If I come into the game thinking about offense, I am no good. I just focused on defense and rebounding, as well as being the leader of the team."

Outside of connecting on 44.6% of their shots from the field, 40.0% from behind the arc, defense and cleaning the glass played an enormous factor in the Cougars' win. Houston's defense held UT Arlington's offense to 28.3% shooting from the floor, and a dreadful 28.6% from deep. The Cougars won the battle of the boards 49-31 (15 offensive rebounds.), something head coach, Kelvin Sampson, was most impressed by.

"Hinton is the heart and soul of this team," Sampson said. "Do you know how hard it is for a guard to average nearly 10 rebounds a game? "As an entire team, we are the No. 1 rated offensive rebounding percentage team in the nation and that is huge for us. That is apart of our culture."

After a slow start to the contest, the Mavericks battled back to make it a competitive game against the Cougars. UT Arlington outscored Houston 28-22 to close out the first half trailing 36-30, after falling behind by as many as 12 points. Although they played a great defensive game, the Cougars had no answer for the Mavericks' Brian Warren, as the senior guard scored 15 of his 27 points (8-19 FG, 5-10 3PT) in the first half.

Providing UH with some key production coming from their second unit, Caleb Mills scored 17 points on 6-for-11 shooting from the field, as the freshman guard gave the Cougars an extra boost off the bench.

Following the win, the Cougars will look to extend their winning streak to five on Sunday, when they take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Sunday, inside the Fertitta Center in Houston. Tip-off is slated for 2:00 P.M. CT.