Milos Uzan scored a season-high 19 points to help No. 6 Houston rally for a 62-58 victory over No. 13 Arizona in Big 12 play on Saturday afternoon at Tucson, Ariz.
L.J. Cryer added 15 points for Houston in the first meeting between the national powers since both programs joined the Big 12. The victory gave the first-place Cougars (21-4, 13-1) a two-game lead over the Wildcats (17-8, 11-3) in the conference race.
Caleb Love recorded 17 points and seven assists and KJ Lewis added 13 points for Arizona, which lost its second straight game after winning 13 of its previous 14 games.
Houston owns the nation’s longest active road winning streak at 11 games. The Wildcats dropped to 11-2 at home this season.
Arizona shot 37 percent from the field, including 5-of-23 (21.7 percent) from 3-point range, and held a 39-30 rebounding advantage.
The Cougars connected on 43.1 percent from the field and were 5-of-17 (29.4 percent) from behind the arc while winning for the 17th time in the past 18 games.
Houston led for less than eight minutes on Saturday but turned the game around with a 16-2 burst in the second half.
Baskets by J’Wan Roberts and Cryer capped the surge to give the Cougars a 57-50 lead with 3:11 remaining.
Arizona answered with six straight points and closed within one on Carter Bryant’s trey with 1:41 left.
Uzan hit a floater 14 seconds later to give Houston a three-point edge before Bryant’s follow cut it to one with a minute left.
Terrance Arceneaux made two free throws with 34.2 seconds left to push the Cougars back ahead by three. Lewis missed a 3-pointer for the Wildcats with 16 seconds left.
Roberts got the rebound and was fouled and then split two free throws with 12.5 seconds left to help seal it.
Earlier in the second half, Lewis had four points during a 6-0 burst as Arizona went ahead 48-41 with 9:10 remaining.
The Cougars then ripped off 12 straight points to take their first lead since 8-7 in the opening minutes. Cryer hit a jumper and Uzan followed with two baskets before Cryer buried a 3-pointer to give Houston a 50-48 lead with six minutes to play.
Cryer then drilled another trey to give the Cougars a five-point lead with 5:15 remaining.
Love scored 11 first-half points as Arizona led 30-25 at the break.
–Field Level Media
