Tulsa @ Houston preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 11, 2020 ) Houston 61, Tulsa 63

Looking to avenge one of its three losses during American Athletic Conference play, No. 22 Houston will play host to Tulsa on Wednesday after the Golden Hurricane earned a two-point victory over the Cougars on Jan. 11. The trio of conference setbacks have come by a combined five points for Houston, which is coming off a 73-72 overtime defeat Saturday at SMU.

It’s a good sign for the Cougars that their top two scorers – redshirt freshman Caleb Mills (12.4 points per game) and sophomore Quentin Grimes (12.3) – combined for 11 points on 3-for-18 shooting against SMU, and still the team managed to force an extra frame before seeing their win streak snapped at three games. “College basketball is a journey. You have some good wins, and you have some bad losses.” Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson told the media Monday after practice. “You can always tell if you have a high-character team by the way they practice after losses.” Tulsa won its second straight contest Saturday despite not having its best shooting night– 36 percent from the floor, 19 percent from long range – but the Golden Hurricane knocked down 23-of-28 from the charity stripe and earned an impressive 56-48 road victory over South Florida. “When you are able to be strong and make free throws, it is how you win on the road," Tulsa head coach Frank Haith told reporters. "We went to the line with confidence, controlling the game from start to finish."

TIME: 9 p.m. ET. TV: ESPNU

ABOUT TULSA (17-8, 9-3 AAC): Junior guard Brandon Rachal was successful on all eight of his free-throw attempts Saturday and finished with a game-high 18 points while grabbing a team-best six boards. Senior forward Martins Igbanu has been coming off the bench since league play began and has averaged 16.3 points and 5.8 rebounds while shooting 62.5 percent from the floor over those 12 contests. The Golden Hurricane had an outstanding defensive first half against USF as they held the Bulls to 11 total points and 13 of the 18 turnovers they forced came in the opening 20 minutes.

ABOUT HOUSTON (20-6, 10-3): Freshman Marcus Sasser carried the offensive load Saturday as he scored a career-high 26 points to help the Cougars overcome an 11-point halftime deficit. Sophomore guard Nate Hinton had managed to grab fewer than five boards just once through his first 24 games this season, but the team’s leading rebounder (9.0 per game) managed just five Saturday despite playing a career-high 44 minutes. Redshirt junior DeJon Jarreau, who leads the squad with 3.7 assists per game, tallied 15 points, three boards and three helpers off the bench against the Mustangs before fouling out with under four minutes remaining in regulation.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Tulsa leads the all-time series 28-27.

2. Jarreau is seven assists shy of becoming the 19th player in program history to own multiple 100-assist seasons.

3. The Golden Hurricane are 5-6 away from home this season - 4-2 during conference play.

PREDICTION: Houston 70, Tulsa 65