Feb. 21, 2004

Final Stats

Houston, Texas - Freshman Lanny Smith scored 15 points and made three decisive plays in the final four minutes of the game to lead the University of Houston to a 53-52 victory over USF on Saturday, February 21 in Hofheinz Pavilion.

With Houston trailing 49-43 with 4:35 remaining in the game, Smith stole the ball from Bradley Mosley and raced down court for a lay-up just before the final media time out and sparked 10-3 Cougar run.

"During the timeout, I told our players that we were down two possessions and we had to make something happen," Houston head coach Ray McCallum said. "The game came down to the final four minutes and I challenged them to create their own energy."

Smith provided the energy most of the way down the stretch after Andre Owens tipped in a missed shot by Aaron Anderson to pull the Cougars to within, 49-47, with 3:35 left to play.

On USF's next possession, Terrence Leather followed up his own miss with a lay-up to extend the Bulls' lead to 51-47 with 3:15 left to play.

But, that is when Smith took over and refused to let his team lose the game. First, he drove the lane for a lay-up despite being fouled by Leather. He made the free throw to close the gap to one, 51-50.

Mosley made one of his two free throws to up USF's lead to 52-50 with 2:30 left to play. That was the last points the Bulls scored in the game.

With 1:05 left to play, Smith scored a three-point field goal from just left of the key to give the Cougars the lead for good, 53-52. Andy Ikeakor stole the ball back from Mosley with 44 seconds left to play. The Cougars held the ball until nine seconds remained on the shot clock before Smith drove the lane for an attempted lay-up. But Gerrick Morris blocked his 10th shot of the night giving the Bulls one last chance to score.

Mosley drove from the right wing to the left side of the basket and went up for a shot, but Anwar Ferguson rejected the shot with two seconds left to preserve the win.

"This was a very important game and one we had to have," McCallum said. "We have been in this position several times before this year, but tonight, we dug down deep and won this one."

The win improves Houston's overall record to 9-15 and the Cougars are 3-10 in Conference USA play. South Florida falls to 7-16 and 1-11 in C-USA play.

Houston is in a three-way tie for 11th place in the Conference USA standings with three games remaining on the Cougars' schedule. Houston travels to TCU on February 28. The Cougars play host to Charlotte on March 3 before closing out the regular season at Saint Louis on March 5.