Coogs improve to 17-1 with 69-58 road win over SMU

UPDATED: January 17, 2019 -- 12:04 a.m. CST

POSTED: January 16, 2019 -- 10:40 p.m. CST

DALLAS, TX -- The Houston Cougars improved to 17-1 Wednesday night with a 69-58 road win over the SMU Mustangs. Houston is now 4-1 in American Athletic Conference play.

Tonight's win is the 600th win over Houston Head Coach Kelvin Sampson's coaching career and also his 100th win as head coach at Houston.

Houston senior guard Corey Davis Jr. led the Coogs with 20 points -- 15 in the second half. Davis Jr made his first seven field goal attempts in the second half to help the Coogs increase a nine point halftime lead to 16 (58-42) with 9:20 remaining in the half.

Houston junior guard Armoni Brooks scored 19 points. Brooks made five three-point shots. His fourth three-pointer ended the first half and gave the Coogs a 31-22 lead at the half. Brooks' 5th triple occurred with 1:48 remaining in the game to end an 8-0 run by the Mustangs and give the Coogs a 67-55 lead.

The first half was a grind as both teams played solid defense but also struggled to make shots. Houston shot 10 for 31 from the floor in the first half while the Mustangs made 9 of 25 field goal attempts.

The Coogs made 15 of 24 field goals in the second half to pull away from the Mustangs. After a jumper by Fabian White Jr., Houston led 64-47 with 5:28 on the game clock. However, Houston went scoreless during a stretch against SMU's extended defense. During Houston's scoring drought, SMU went on an 8-0 run to trim Houston's lead to 9 with 2:20 remaining.

After a timeout by Houston, Brooks hit his 5th three-point shot to clinch the game for the Coogs.

After the game, Coach Sampson was asked if we would celebrate win number 600 tonight or at the end of the season. Sampson said, "End of the. End of the year. We've got South Florida (January 19). They've been playing really good. So, we've got another road game Saturday.

"We've got a 4 hour bus ride," Sampson continued. "We'll get back about 3 in the morning. Our kids gotta get up and go to class tomorrow. Everybody's gotta go to class. We won't be popping any champagne bottles; but, I'll be popping something else if they don't go to class tomorrow."

NOTES:

Sampson became only the 52nd coach (with 10+ years at NCAA Division I level) in NCAA history to reach 600 career and the 91st coach in NCAA history at all levels. He also became the fastest coach in Houston history to reach 100 wins, accomplishing the feat in 149 games.

SMU (11-6, 3-2), played most of the game without senior guard Jarrey Foster. Foster sprained his left knee early in the first half of the game and did not return. He missed the second half of last season and the first six games this season after an ACL injury. SMU Head Coach Tim Jankovich said Foster tweaked his knee and will have tests on Thursday.

NEXT:

Houston plays USF, Saturday, January 19, in Tampa, FL, at 7 p.m. on ESPNU.

CLICK HERE for The HRR's write-ups of Coogs' men's hoops games.