The Houston Cougars held off a second-half surge from the Temple Owls with a 78-74 victory, Tuesday night, inside The Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, PA. With a win over their American Athletic Conference counterparts, the Cougars extended their winning streak to six and improved to 2-0 in conference play.

After leaving the game early due to an allergic reaction during Friday's win over the UCF Knights, freshman guard, Caleb Mills, bounced back in an enormous way. He matched a career-best 23 points shooting 9-for-16 from the floor (56.2%), 3-for-5 (60.0) on 3-point field goal attempts.

Following a made three by Nate Hinton (10 points, 13 rebounds), the Cougars held a 15 point lead with a little over a minute left in the first half. Despite their hot start to the game, the Cougars dominance over the Owls did not carry over into the second half, as Temple took a 60-59 lead with 7:10 remaining in the game.

At the worst possible time, Temple went cold from the field missing five consecutive shots, as Houston took advantage of the Owls' mishaps to go on an 11-2 run to reclaim the lead. In addition to a career performance from Mills, junior big man, Chris Harris, recorded a double-double of 11 points and 13 rebounds, to go along with four blocks and three assists for the Cougars.

In the loss, Quinton Rose tallied in a season-high 21 points while Nate Pierre-Louis added in 13 points and seven rebounds for the Owls.

Following the win, the Cougars will continue their two-game road trip against the 9-5, 1-0 Tulsa Golden Hurricane, Sunday night, inside the Reynolds Center in Tulsa, OK.