The Houston Cougars win their third straight game
Grimes leads Cougars to road victory over the UCF Bulls
Feb 12, 2020, 11:30 pm
The Houston Cougars win their third straight game
The Houston Cougars held a two-point advantage (53-51) late in the second half when Quentin Grimes knocked down an open 3-point field goal off an assist by Fabian White Jr. The basket scored by Grimes was enough to keep the Cougars in the lead en route to a 62-58 victory over the South Florida Bulls, Wednesday night, inside the Yuengling Center in Tampa, FL.
While improving to 10-2 in conference play, the Cougars have now won eight of their last nine games following the win.
While scoring nine of his final point-total in the final three minutes, Grimes led Houston on the night with 22 points (6-14 FG, 3-6 3PT), six rebounds and five assists. His performance Wednesday night marked the first time since the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Class in December, where the sophomore guard from The Woodlands scored over 20 points.
Despite the game coming down to the final seconds, it was a wire-to-wire victory for the Cougars. Houston opened the first period on a 10-4 run, which gave way to a 31-26 lead into the halftime break. While connecting on five of his seven field-goal attempts, Fabian White Jr added in 10 points and five rebounds, as the junior big man came up tremendous on the defensive end with two steals and a block in the win.
With only two players scoring in double-figures, senior guard Laquincy Rideau led the Bulls with a team-high 21 points shooting 63.3% from the floor, while his backcourt mate, Nate Hinton, added in 13 points in the loss.
Cougars' head coach Kelvin Sampson moved past Alden Pasche as the third-winningest coach in school history, trailing only Guy Lewis (592) and Pat Foster (142).
Following the win, the Cougars will hit the road on Saturday to take on the 17-6, 7-4 SMU Mustangs inside the Moody Coliseum in Dallas. Tip-off is slated for 5 p.m. CT.
Oswald Peraza hit a two-run single in the ninth inning to help the Los Angeles Angels snap a three-game losing skid by beating the Houston Astros 4-1 on Saturday night.
Peraza entered the game as a defensive replacement in the seventh inning and hit a bases-loaded fly ball to deep right field that eluded the outstretched glove of Cam Smith. It was the fourth straight hit off Astros closer Bryan Abreu (3-4), who had not allowed a run in his previous 12 appearances.
The Angels third run of the ninth inning scored when Mike Trout walked with the bases loaded.
Kyle Hendricks allowed one run while scattering seven hits over six innings. He held the Astros to 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position, the one hit coming on Jesús Sánchez’s third-inning infield single that scored Jeremy Peña.
Reid Detmers worked around a leadoff walk to keep the Astros scoreless in the seventh, and José Fermin (3-2) retired the side in order in the eighth before Kenley Jansen worked a scoreless ninth to earn his 24th save.
Houston’s Spencer Arrighetti struck out a season-high eight batters over 6 1/3 innings. The only hit he allowed was Zach Neto’s third-inning solo home run.
Yordan Alvarez had two hits for the Astros, who remained three games ahead of Seattle for first place in the AL West.
Peraza’s two-run single to deep right field that broke a 1-1 tie in the ninth.
Opponents were 5 for 44 against Abreu in August before he allowed four straight hits in the ninth.
Astros RHP Hunter Brown (10-6, 2.37 ERA) faces RHP José Soriano (9-9, 3.85) when the series continues Sunday.