Jan. 17, 2004

Box Score

Houston, Texas - Andre Owens scored 21 points and handed out five assists to lead the University of Houston to a 55-53 victory over East Carolina Saturday night.

The Cougars came into the game looking to avenge a heart-wrenching one-point loss against TCU on January 13 when the Horned Frogs scored a tip-in at the buzzer for a 55-54 win.

"This was an important win," Houston head coach Ray McCallum said. "First of all, we made a statement of character tonight after having the game against TCU taken away from us. We came out fighting tonight."

The Cougars jumped out a 14-8 lead in the first seven and a half minutes of the game. But, Derrick Wiley capped a 19-6 run with a jumper from the right wing to give ECU a 27-20 lead with 1:59 left in the opening period.

ECU led 28-23 when Mike Cook hit one of his two free throws before Owens hit John Taylor for a lay-up to end the opening period.

In the second half, Owens scored 14 of his points in the second half to lead Houston's comeback. First, he opened the second half with a three-pointer from just right of the key to tie the score at 28-28.

Then, he scored a dunk after Ramon Dyer stole the ball from Japhet McNeil to give the Cougars a 34-33 lead. Houston never trailed again the rest of the way.

"We came out in the second half with a lot of energy," McCallum said. "Our defense set the tone. We were quick to the ball and we rebounded well. Anwar Ferguson had three of his four blocked shots in the second half after we challenged him to become more of a defensive force."

On the offensive end, the Cougars turned to Owens.

"My teammates urged me to start looking for my shot and I looked to score more after that," Owens said.

Owens made 6 of his 12 field goal attempts, including two of his five shots behind the three-point line.

He hit a jumper in the middle of the lane to give Houston a 54-51 lead with 2:44 left to play.

Luke Mackay connected on two free throws to close the game to one, 54-53. But, Houston's Marcus Oliver swished his second of two free throws to extend the Cougars' lead to 55-53 with eight seconds left.

"We showed tonight that we learned from the TCU loss how to defend in the last few seconds," McCallum said. "We kept our man in front of us the (length of the court) and made them take a tough shot away from the basket."

Wiley attempted a desperation shot from the right wing, but Ferguson blocked the shot while closing out to defend him. Oliver hit the rebound straight up in the air as time expired, giving the Cougars their first Conference USA win this season. Houston evened its overall record to 7-7 and is 1-3 in Conference USA play. The victory also snapped a four-game losing streak. East Carolina fell to 8-6 overall and are 0-4 in C-USA.

Houston will close out its non-conference schedule Monday night against Centenary at 7:30 p.m. in Hofheinz Pavilion.

Tickets for the Centenary game are $2.00 as part of a "Martin Luther King Holiday Special".