Balanced scoring effort guides Coogs in 84-56 win over Alabama State

POSTED: November 13, 2019 -- 9:03 a.m. CT

HOUSTON, TX (Fertitta Center) -- Houston Cougars freshman guard Marcus Sasser scored a team-high 14 points in 14 plus minutes Tuesday night in Houston's 84-56 win over the Alabama State Hornets.

Sasser was one of 5 Coogs to score in double-digits in the win. Quentin Grimes scored 13 points. Redshirt juniors Dejon Jarreau and Justin Gorham each scored 11 points; and, junior forward Fabian White Jr added 10 points and six rebounds.

Houston outrebounded Alabama State 45-24 as well as outscored them 40-20 in the paint; 23-4 in second-chance points; and, 44-17 in bench points.

"Anytime you can out rebound someone with 21 rebounds is usually a good sign," Houston Head Coach Kelvin Sampson said after the game. "Our ball movement was good; but, we missed a lot of open shots. We had 15 assists, but that could've easily been 24 assists."

Gorham, a transfer from Towson, did not play in the 2018-'19 season as part of the NCAA's transfer rules. Therefore, Tuesday's game versus Alabama State was Gorham's first regular season game since the end of the 2017-'18 season.

"It was good," Gorham said of his performance versus the Hornets. "I feel like this summer during the Italy trip it helped that I played in competitive games. But, coming out here, I had to buy into the culture of the program and play hard. That was going to take care of itself."

Houston (1-0) never trailed in the ball game. Alabama State (0-3) committed 10 turnovers in the first half; however, the Hornets shot 6 for 13 from three point range in the opening half. The Hornets made just 1 of 8 three-point shots in the second half.

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Coach Sampson said he made a defensive adjustment in the second half.

"The adjustment was quit trapping them," Sampson acknowledge. "I said, ‘I'm going to fix that real quick, they're not going to get those threes anymore if we guard them’."

Houston utilized 1-2-2 and 2-2-1 trapping defenses in the first half which, when effective, it forced Alabama State to commit turnovers. However, when the defenses weren't effective, the Hornets had numerous wide open three-point shot attempts.

"They were getting most of them out of our 12, out of the 1-2-2," Sampson said of the Hornets. "We weren't recovering to them fast enough, they were getting wide open out of that. Once we stayed man-to-man, they weren't getting those looks. When you're running a press defense like we're doing, there's a chance you're going to give something up because you always have two men on the ball in the trap. So that's two on one which is four one three away from the ball. So, if they move the ball, they're going to get an open shot. That's what you decide, you make that decision that you possibly can give that up. We really need to get better in the trap or get better at figuring out how to rotate to the shooter out of the trap."

Houston shot 51.6% (33 for 64 field goals) Tuesday night.

"I saw a lot of things I liked, a lot of things we need to continue to get better at and keep working on," Sampson remarked. "It's November 12th and I think we did a lot of things pretty good."

Houston's next game is Friday, November 15, at home, versus BYU. Tip time is scheduled for 8 p.m.

After facing BYU, Houston plays at Rice Tuesday, November 19; then, at Oregon, Friday, November 22.

"These next three games we have coming up, we have BYU, Rice, and Oregon," Sampson commented. "If you don't play good, you could lose any of those, you have to play better. You have to play good and our team will get better. I like our team, I really like our kids."

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