Nate Hinton's 25 points and 10 rebounds leads Houston over UTA

POSTED: December 12, 2019 -- 6:54 a.m. CT

HOUSTON, TX (Fertitta Center) -- The Houston Cougars never trailed the Texas-Arlington Mavericks in a 71-63 victory Wednesday night. Houston sophomore guard Nate Hinton scored a career-high 25 points to help Houston improve to 6-2 this season.

Houston's defense was solid much of the ball game. UTA missed its first seven field goal attempts of the game and finished the game shooting just 28.3% (17 for 60) on field goal attempts.

However, Houston never led by more than 13 points in the game due to too many turnovers and committing too many fouls which resulted in the Mavericks going 21 for 27 from the foul line.

Houston Head Coach Kelvin Sampson said, "Our defense was outstanding. We held that team to 28 percent. Our rebounding was outstanding, we out-rebounded them by 18. Turnovers and fouls, that's it. Our guards' composure tonight was poor. I saw some passes tonight that in 30 something years of coaching, I've never seen before. The good thing about our turnovers were that they were so bad that they went up into the stands."

The Mavs converted Houston's 16 turnovers into 14 points.

"We have to keep getting better and keep hitting the rock," Hinton said of the turnovers and bad passes.

Fabian White Jr added, "My turnovers are just composure. We just have to keep our composure."

---

SUPPORT The Houston Roundball Review:

Purchase your Coogs' gear at Fanatics.com via this link;

Get ESPN+ via this link;

Save when you get the Disney bundle (ESPN+, Disney+ and Hulu) with this link;

OR, contribute via PayPal or the Cash App.

---

For many parts of the game, Houston's Hinton and UTA guard Brian Warren were the only players who made baskets.

Warren scored a season-high 15 points in the first half on 6 for 9 field goal shooting. His teammates made 4 of 16 field goals in the first half.

With 11:29 remaining in the ball game and Houston leading 50-43, Hinton had made 9 of his 14 field goal attempts while his teammates combined to make 9 of 28 attempts. On the other side, Warren was 8 for 13 from the floor; and, his teammates combined to make 6 of 28 field goals.

The Mavs pulled within 50-45 before Houston's Caleb Mills sank a tough jumper and a free throw followed by a strong finish at the rim by Houston sophomore guard Quentin Grimes to push the margin to 10 points (50-45).

Mills scored 17 points off the bench for Houston in 22 plus minutes.

"Caleb Mills has had two good practices," Coach Sampson commented. "Guys that practice well usually play well. Some of the guys that didn't play well did not practice well either."

Later in the second half, Fabian White Jr. converted an offensive rebound into a putback layup for a 67-54 lead with 3:34 remaining in the game. However, Houston's offense went cold and UTA went on a 9-1 run to trim Houston's lead to 68-63 with 68 seconds remaining.

After UTA called timeout, the Mavs fouled Houston's DeJon Jarreau to send him to the free throw line. Jarreau made both foul shots. UTA did not score on its next possession before fouling Grimes. Grimes split two foul shots for the final score of the game.

Houston shot 53.6% (15 for 28 field goals) in the first half; however, Houston shot 35.7% (10 for 28 field goals) in the second half. The Coogs out-rebounded the Mavs 49-31 and outscored them 24-10 in points in the paint.

Houston's next game is Sunday, December 15, at home, versus Oklahoma State. Tip is scheduled for 2 p.m. ESPN will broadcast the game.

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