Houston Cougars to Meet Baylor Bears at the NCAA Final Four

The Houston Cougars and the Baylor Bears are the first two teams to reach this year’s NCAA Tournament Final Four.

The last time the University of Houston entered the top four teams in the NCAA Tournament was in 1984, with Hakeem Olajuwon in the starting lineup. The Cougars reached that position tonight, following a win over the Oregon State Beavers 67-61, in the Midwest Region’s Elite Eight.

But this historic result couldn’t come without drama. The Cougars had a 34-17 advantage at halftime, but with 3:21 to go, the Beavers managed to tie the result following Gianni Hunt’s three. It was the finale of a 17-3 run Oregon State had in those minutes. Yet, a 9-1 burst Houston had would solve the game.

Quentin Grimes’ three-pointer was the most important basket of the game, with the sharpshooting guard hitting it with 2:22 to go, leading his team to a four-point lead, 60-56. Grimes had 18 points, and was the second-best scorer in Houston.

Marcus Sasser had 20 points, hitting five threes, and grabbing four boards. Dejon Jarreau scored 10, but he had 8 boards and assists each, presenting the glue of the Cougars’ team.

On the other side, the Beavers’ Maurice Calloo was the top-scorer of his side with just 13 points. He came off the bench to add five rebounds, playing only 13 minutes. Ethan Thompson scored 11, with seven boards and six assists, but shooting very badly, 3-for-12.

This was one of the greatest rides for this program who entered the NCAA tournament following a win in the PAC-12 tournament finals. When the regular season finished, the Beavers were 14-12, earning the spot in the postseason with a conference title. For many, Oregon State was the biggest surprise of the tournament.

“It was right there within our grasp with the effort we showed in the second half,” Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle said. “Really proud of this group. We got every single ounce out of them.”

The Cougars meet Baylor in the semifinals, as the Bears beat Arkansas Razorbacks, 81-72 in their Elite Eight matchup. This is the first Final Four appearance for the Bears in 71 years.

The No.1 seed Baylor enjoyed a nice lead in the first half, having between 12 and 16 points of advantage almost always. However, they went on a break with just an 8-point lead, and didn’t start the second sequence very well. Arkansas came down to four, 58-62, but after that, MaCio Teague helped the Bears break the rivals’ resistance, with a couple of threes in the key moments of the event.

“What we did is history,” Teague said. “I’m really happy for Coach Drew. He’s spent a lot of time, dedication, blood, sweat and tears into this program.”

Baylor quickly pulled away following that, betting back to a double-digit distance while closing the game routinely.

Teague had 22 points with five boards and was the top scorer on the court. Jared Butler had 14 points, and Davion Mitchell 12. the Bears were shooting 48.4% from the field and made 8 threes in 15 tries.

On the other side, Razorbacks had just three downtown shots in 11 tries, which was eventually the biggest difference in this event. JD Notae and Davonte Davis had 14 points each, Jalen Tate added 13.

“The effort when we got down, we could have hung our heads, but we played really hard,” Arkansas’ head coach Eric Musselman said. “We played extremely hard but lacked some scoring at times, and defensively, they hit some tough shots on us.”

We have two more Elite Eight Matches tonight, Gonzaga vs. USC Trojans and Michigan Wolverines vs. UCLA.