Men's Basketball
Men's Basketball Loses to Louisville






Louisville's Reece Gaines tries to drive the ball through the defense of Houston's Marcus Oliver. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Reece Gaines scored 16 of his 20 points in the second half and had a career-high eight assists to lead Louisville to a 79-67 win over Houston on Wednesday night.

Rashad Brooks added 15 points and Marques Maybin scored 13 for Louisville (6-11, 2-2 Conference USA), which snapped an unprecedented four-game losing streak at Freedom Hall.

Dominic Smith scored 22 points and George Williams added 15 points and nine rebounds for Houston (4-11, 1-2), which lost to Louisville for the sixth straight time.

Brooks, who scored a career-high 16 points against Cincinnati on Saturday, sank a pair of 3-pointers during an 11-0 run that gave the Cardinals a 27-16 lead midway through the first half.

Louisville sank 17 of 28 shots in the first half (61 percent), but settled for a five-point halftime lead.

The Cardinals missed 11 of their first 13 shots in the second half, enabling the Cougars to make a 10-2 run. Patrick Okafor's putback basket with 13:08 left in the game gave Houston a brief 49-48 lead.

Mac Wilkinson sank a 3-pointer 30 seconds later to restore Louisville's lead, and Gaines hit two jumpers to push the margin to seven.

Louisville maintained the seven-point lead into the final minutes and sank five of eight free throws in the final 90 seconds to seal the win.

Houston shot 35 percent (17-of-49) and outrebounded Louisville 35-29. The Cardinals shot 51 percent (28-of-55) and got outrebounded for the 12th time in 17 games.

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