No. 21 Houston improves to 12-0, routing winless Coppin St

Dec 24, 2018, 12:12 am

HOUSTON -- Undefeated Houston pushed aside winless Coppin State for yet another home victory.

Corey Davis had 16 points, Breaon Brady added 13 and No. 21 Houston beat Coppin State 75-44 on Sunday to improve to 12-0 and extend the nation's longest home winning streak to 25.

"It means a lot to take care of our home court," Davis said. "It always puts an extra boost in us. It helps that we win all our games, but we make sure we take care of our business at home."

Davis was 4 of 9 from 3-point range, and Brady was 6 of 8 from the field.

"We wanted to establish Breaon inside," Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. "Our guys were good with our ball movement, we were really good with our pace. The only thing wrong with our offense was missing shots."

Armoni Brooks added 10 points and nine rebounds to help the Cougars remain one of five undefeated Division I teams.

Houston finished with 17 assists on 28 made field goals.

"We had a ton of opportunities to score a lot more points," Sampson said. "As long as we're defending and playing together, playing unselfish. We had 17 assists, it could have been 27 assists."

Houston took over the longest home winning streak Saturday night when Montana beat South Dakota State to end the Jackrabbits' home streak at 26.

Cedric Council had nine points and 12 rebounds for Coppin State, at 0-14 one of two remaining winless teams. The Eagles shot 22 percent.

"We have to keep getting better," coach Juan Dixon said. "Those guys executed well, they made some shots, they defended well. We had some opportunities early to make shots. We didn't capitalize."

After coming from behind in the second half of the last three games, including by double-digits against Utah State on Thursday and LSU on Dec. 12, the Cougars led throughout against the Eagles.

"We do a good job of treating everyone the same, every opponent," Davis said. "On games like this we have to focus on ourselves and bring energy and playing hard and playing tough, getting offensive boards, getting defensive boards."

After Council hit a 3-pointer to cut Houston's lead to 20-13, the Cougars had a 15-5 spurt to open a 17-point lead. Brady had seven points in the run.

Houston led 37-22 at the half, and the Eagles got no closer than 14 in the second half.

BIG PICTURE

Coppin State: The Eagles hung with Houston for the first 10 minutes, but Houston's size, quickness and athleticism were too much. Coppin State was 7 of 27 on 2-point field goals, 7 of 38 on 3-pointers and was outscored 36-8 in the paint.

Houston: The Cougars had one of their better shooting games from the field, but continued to struggle from 3-point range, hitting 7 of 25. ... The Cougars had a 53-39 rebounding edge.

POLL IMPLICATIONS

After another 2-0 week, the Cougars will likely rise into the top 20.

HE SAID IT

"We have yet to have a game this year where Corey and Armoni shot the ball well in the same night. They just tag each other." -- Sampson on his guards' shooting struggles.

UP NEXT

Coppin State: At Notre Dame on Saturday.

Houston: Hosts NJIT on Saturday.

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