Shorthanded No. 12 Houston snuck past Temple 66-61 on the road in the first game since the teams leading scorer Marcus Sasser announced that he will miss the remainder of the season.
The Cougars came out hot, scoring on their first four baskets which included back-to-back threes from both freshman guard Ramon Walker Jr and graduate center Fabian White to jump out to an early 10-3 lead.
White was three for three from the field with seven points through the first five minutes of the game.
The Cougars had four offensive rebounds in the first eight minutes of the game, White had three of them and UH as a team were out-rebounding the Owls 11-4 by the halfway point in the first half.