Houston crushes SIU Edwardsville in NCAA Tournament opener

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Milos Uzan scored 16 points, LJ Cryer added 15 and No. 1 seed Houston was able to rest up for the rest of the NCAA Tournament while romping past No. 16 seed SIU Edwardsville 78-40 on Thursday in the first round of the Midwest Region.

Ja'Vier Francis added 13 points and eight rebounds for the Big 12 champs, who will carry a 14-game winning streak into a second-round matchup with eighth-seeded Gonzaga or No. 9 seed Georgia. Houston (31-4) has won 26 of its last 27 overall.

Ray'Sean Taylor had 10 points for SIUE (22-12), which was just 2 of 24 from the 3-point arc in its first NCAA appearance.

The Cougars probably knew they were in for a tough afternoon against a bigger, more athletic bunch of Cougars in the first few minutes, when Houston scored on nine straight offensive possessions. At the other end, SIUE struggled just to get shots off — at one point, guard Brian Taylor II was trapped so quickly that he genuinely looked perplexed.

The whole affair may have been summed up by the last 3 seconds of the first half: SIUE forward Myles Thompson was trapped near midcourt, turned the ball over, and Cryer promptly drilled a 3 from the wing to give Houston a 52-24 lead.

Kelvin Sampson's bunch kept extending the lead all the way to the finish.

Key takeaways

SIU Edwardsville may have had more fans — or at least louder ones — than Houston for its NCAA tourney debut. They cheered all the way to the finish, too, when coach Brian Barone took his starters out of the game.

Houston was no doubt pleased to see J'Wan Roberts moving around fine on the ankle he sprained in the Big 12 Tournament. He was able to spend much of the second half resting with the rest of the Cougars' starters on the bench.

Up next

Houston advanced to the second round for the seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament.

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