San Diego State beats No. 6 Houston in overtime

This is not the start to the season that Kelvin Sampson imagined.

The Houston Cougars, a preseason national championship favorite, fell to 4-3 with a stunning 73-70 overtime loss to San Diego State on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

The Cougars finished the week 1-2 at the Player Era Festival with two overtime losses. They lost to No. 9 Alabama 85-80 on Tuesday before beating Notre Dame 65-54 on Wednesday.

The loss to unranked San Diego State (4-2) will certainly knock the Cougars out of the top 10 in the national rankings. The Aztecs lost 78-68 to unranked Oregon on Wednesday, slipping into the third-place game against Houston.

Emanuel Sharp led Houston with 23 points and LJ Cryer added 21. Houston’s trio of big men – Ja’Vier Francis, JoJo Tugler and J’Wan Roberts – dominated the boards (27 total rebounds) but struggled to score. They combined for just 11 points on 5 of 17 shooting.

Sampson shortened his bench and changed seven players. But the bench didn’t produce results, scoring just 7 points compared to 16 for San Diego State.

Fouling continues to be a problem for Houston. They committed 21 personal fouls against San Diego State and the Aztecs shot 27 free throws – 10 more than Houston. In their loss to Alabama, the Cougars committed 30 fouls and both Sharp and Milos Uzan were fouled.

Houston has a week off to prepare for a home game against Butler. The Cougars will not be tested again until Big 12 play begins Dec. 30 against Oklahoma State.

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