Coogs crush Marshall

TaShawn's 25 points leads 3 Coogs w/ 20 plus points

POSTED: March 2, 2013 -- 7:51 p.m. CT

HOUSTON, TX (Hofheinz Pavilion) -- The Houston Cougars played 36 minutes of sensational basketball Saturday afternoon (to overcome four minutes of woeful basketball) and crushed the Marshall Thundering Herd 103-76 in front of an announced crowd of 3935 fans.

TaShawn Thomas scored a team-high 25 points on 12 of 18 field goal shooting. Thomas stuffed the stat sheet with 14 rebounds; five assists; three blocked shots and 1 steal -- in 31 minutes.

Danuel House and Joseph Young each scored 23 points.

House, Thomas and Young became the first trio of Coogs to score 20 plus points in the same game since Aubrey Coleman (33), Kelvin Lewis (25) and Adam Brown (21) accomplished the feat in a 105-81 win against TCU on December 23, 2009, inside Hofheinz Pavilion.

Big man Mikhail McLean added 12 points and seven rebounds in 26 minutes. McLean's leadership and vocal communication helped anchor the Coogs' defense.

The Coogs shot 51.5% from the floor in the first half and led 44-28 at halftime.

House, Thomas and Young combined for the Coogs first 16 points in the second half.

The Coogs' lead ballooned to 30 (69-39) after House swished his fourth (made 5 of 6) three-point shot of the game at the 13:08 mark of the half.

Then, the Coogs relaxed on defense and stopped moving the ball on offense. As a result, of the porous play, the Herd outscored the Coogs 14-2 and cut the lead to 18 (71-53) with 9:08 left in the ball game.

Coogs' head coach James Dickey called a 30-second timeout and re-inserted Thomas and Young into the ball game.

The Coogs responded with a 16-6 run to lead 87-59 with only 4:12 remaining.

Houston (16-11 overall, 5-9 in Conference USA) finished the game with 26 assists on 38 made baskets. Even more impressive, the Coogs assisted on 18 of the 21 baskets in the second half.

The Coogs shot 59.4% (38 for 64 field goals) for the ball game.

After the game, Coach Dickey was pleased with his team's performance; however, Coach Dickey was not thrilled his team allowed the Herd to score 37 points in the final 13 minutes of the ball game.

The Coogs will host the Rice Owls, Wednesday, March 6, at 7pm. Wednesday's game is Senior Night; and, the Coogs will try to avenge the 79-69 defeat to the Owls on January 30, 2013 which is the Owls' only win in Conference USA this season.

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