Saturday NCAA Football Recap
Texas schools keep up the momentum in Week 2
Kalah Winters
Sep 9, 2018, 3:30 pm
A major shocker from the Aggies and more of the same dominance from Texas schools in Week 2:
Arizona approached this game hoping to avoid an 0-2 start to the season but they certainly did not play that way throughout the first half. Hell, even the third quarter was almost a bust for Arizona until the Cougars felt their confidence flair and took out D’Eriq King and Ed Oliver. To say the Wildcats took advantage of Applewhite’s overzealous misstep is an understatement. After being shutout in quarters one and two, the Wildcats started to show signs of a comeback, scoring on a field goal, following-up with 1-yard touchdown run by Darrius Smith, but they never recovered from the game-long uphill battle. Arizona coach Kevin Sumlin has been the talk of the town, for reasons unbeknownst to me, considering their Heisman candidate quarterback has repeatedly giving declining performances since Sumlin’s regime took over. The Cougars whipped the Wildcats on both sides of the field throughout the entire game, but the Houston offense was truly something special. King threw for 246 yards, a career-high 4 touchdowns, and rushed a total of 31 yards for two more scores. The Cougars are battling it out to prove they are definitely the team to watch this season.
It was a slippery Friday night game in Texas that went on far longer than anyone wanted. No. 16 TCU was slated to win but it took the Horned Frogs an entire quarter to get on the board. After the Horned Frogs decided to join the party, they gave SMU the beating we all expected, shutting out SMU for the full second half of the game. KaVontae Turpin ignited his slow-moving teammates with a 78-yard punt return and a 42-yard score for a wet, not so wild, victory over SMU that did not end until early Saturday morning.
There is no reason for Clemson to not have dropped the hammer down on the Aggies but somehow, some way, A&M managed to stay within arm’s reach of the Tigers throughout Saturday’s game. In fact, the Aggies shut the Tigers out entirely in the fourth quarter. TAMU quarterback Kellen Mond dazzled in the second half, completing three touchdown passes, including at 14-yard pass to sophomore receiver Kendrick Rogers. Clemson will likely take a rating dive as a result of this battle with an unranked opponent. Clemson looks ahead to Georgia Southern next Saturday and opens ACC play the following week at Georgia Tech.
On the surface, is looks like LSU took Southeastern Louisiana to slaughter but, it is safe to say the Tigers struggled a bit for this 31-0 win over an undermatched opponent.
This seems like a time in which we should be celebrating Texas, but let us not get too excited. Texas struggled and lost to a team with no coach last week… However, the Longhorns had one helluva game-winning score when sophomore quarterback, Sam Ellinger, engineered a fourth quarter drive to secure the win against spunky Tulsa for this home victory.
Red Raider true freshman Alan Bowman threw for 282 yards and two scores, leading his team to a blowout 77-0 victory over Lamar. Keep in mind, this is after 14 penalties for 139 yards against Tech. Usually penalties cost you a game… unless you are Tech playing Lamar.
Baylor is really trying to improve from last year with these two victories so early in the season. Sophomore quarterback Charlie Brewer threw for 328 yards and three touchdowns, leading his team to victory over UTSA.
Sophomore quarterback Cole McDonald put on quite the show as he led Hawaii to their 43-29 victory over Rice. Despite Rice putting up quite the effort against the Houston Cougars last week, they couldn’t pull it off against Hawaii in Week 2.
Victor Wembanyama scored 29 points, Jeremy Sochan added 17 points and 12 rebounds, and the San Antonio Spurs held on to beat the Houston Rockets 109-106 on Saturday night in their home opener.
Wembanyama added seven rebounds and three blocks while shooting 10 for 17 from the field.
Chris Paul added three points and nine assists, including a drive and feed to Sochan for an open layup that put San Antonio up 104-99 with 1:35 remaining.
After trailing by 22 points in the first half, Houston was within one possession for much of the final minutes. The Rockets went on a 21-8 run in the opening six minutes of the final quarter, turning an 18-point deficit into a 95-90 lead for San Antonio.
Jalen Green had 27 points for Houston. Fred VanVleet added 18 and Dillon Brooks had 16.
Rockets: Houston wasted a good finish with a poor start. After shooting 34% through three quarters, including 17% in the second period, the Rockets shot 60% in the final quarter.
Spurs: San Antonio went 2 for 13 on 3-pointers after opening the game 6 for 7.
After struggling mightily at times last season to get the ball into Wembanyama’s hands around the rim, a pair of passes from Paul yielded much promise and thunderous celebrations. Paul’s first lob resulted in an alley-oop dunk for Wembanyama with 2:12 remaining in the first half that put the Spurs up 57-38. Paul and Wembanyama repeated the alley-oop dunk a minute later, giving the Spurs a 59-38 advantage.
San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich has stressed the need for his team to be more physical and the Spurs responded, outrebounding Houston 57-46.
The Rockets face the Spurs again on Monday to close out a two-game set in San Antonio.