The No. 14 Houston Cougars pulled away in the second half for a 71-53 victory over visiting Cincinnati on Tuesday night.

"I thought we had a good game plan," head coach Wes Miller said. "Our guys did an excellent job at learning their actions and taking what they learned in practice into the first half of tonight's game. I liked how we competed in the first 20 minutes. We made some frustrating errors, but we competed. I didn't like the way we started the second half, and you get in that hole again."

The Bearcats made three of their first five deep attempts, but Fabian White Jr. scored 11 points alone for a 13-11 lead at the 11:39 media timeout. The Bearcats had just one point over seven minutes before an 8-0 run, capped by a laser-beam Mason Madsen three-pointer, gave them a 20-19 lead at 7:08.

Houston led 38-34 at the half after a buzzer-beating triple.

The two teams exchanged three-pointers after the 18-minute mark of the second half, but Houston ultimately went up 48-38 at 14:15. Mike Saunders Jr.'s late-shot-clock three from the wing at 11:23 pulled the Bearcats to within nine.

Saunders (14 points) scored in double-figures for the eighth time this season (fourth in AAC play) to lead the team, while John Newman III added 11 points and a team-high seven rebounds. The Bearcats also broke the school record for three-point attempts, now at 771. Their 243 makes now ranks sixth.

UP NEXT
Cincinnati finishes its regular season Thursday at SMU (7 p.m. ET on ESPNU) before returning to Fort Worth, Texas next week for the AAC Championships.