The Houston Cougars stormed to their second win of the season as they beat the Florida A&M Rattlers 97 – 51 Saturday night. Led by freshman guard Galen Robinson Jr. and sophomore guard Rob Gray Jr., the Cougars got off to a big lead early and never came off the throttle.
“We’re playing good,” head coach Kelvin Sampson said. “Because we beat a team by 50, there’s a tendency to demean the game or demean the team we beat, but there are teams in [FAMU’s] league that is going on the road beating other teams. We prepare our kids the same way no matter who we play. We play hard and we play the right way.”
The Cougars shot 58.2 percent from the field as four players scored double digit figures. UH made 54.3 percent of their field goals in the first period but improved in the second period with 62.5% percent. Ronnie Johnson made eight of his nine shots and finished with 20 points and four assist. Gray helped with 17 points of his own.
Houston made 33.3 percent of their three point shots, while hitting a strong 42.9 percent in the second period. Gray had a big night, making four of nine shots from behind the line. Even though the Cougars were up all game, he wanted to continue to stay focused.
“It’s not too difficult at all [to stay focused],” said Gray. “Coach Sampson does a good job of staying on us and keeping us focused on the task at hand. There might be a few plays where we aren’t as focused as we need to be but he can get on to us and get us to focus and get back to the intensity we need to play at pretty easily.”
The free throw game suffered as they only made 55.6 percent. They started well in the first after making six of seven free throws, but finished the second with seven missed free throws.
Defensive improvements were shown all through the game as the Cougars forced 23 turnovers, 13 of which came in the first half. Houston would score 35 points off of FAMU turnovers. Senior guard LeRon Barnes led the team defensively with three steals. Johnson, Gray and Robinson would each have two steals as well. Junior forward Xavier Dupree had a steal of his own as well as a two blocks.
“I could see a lot of improvement defensively from the Prairie View game to this game,” Sampson said. “I think our defense was a lot better but we foul too much. I have to take some responsibility for that. We teach our kids to play really aggressively, but now we have to play really aggressive and smarter.”
Player of the game: Robinson almost dropped a double-double, scoring 17 points and passing eight assists. He made seven of his eight shots, grabbed two rebounds and finished with two steals.
“I feel very good, especially after the way I played the first game,” Robinson said. “Coach told me to come out and play aggressive and I guess it showed.”
The Cougars will look to continue their winning ways as they face University of Louisiana-Monroe at 7 p.m. Saturday November 28, inside Hofheinz arena.
