3 Players Who Stood Out For Houston in Loss to Arizona

For the second time in under a month, the No. 2 Arizona Wildcats bested the No. 5 Houston Cougars.

Saturday's Big 12 Tournament Championship matchup saw the top-seeded Wildcats knock off Houston 79-74, as five-star freshman Koa Peat poured in 21 points on 7-of-15 shooting. His fellow freshman running mate also had a huge night in Kansas City, as Brayden Burries added 21 points of his own, with the two combining to make 13-of-25 shots.

While Houston fans know what he is capable of, as he has shown it all season en route to being named All-Big 12 first-team, Kingston Flemings picked an inopportune time to have one of his worst scoring outputs on the season. He shot just 3-of-12 (25%), finishing the game with a measly eight points as opposed to his season average of 16.6 points per game.

Although the Cougars lost and need to figure some things out as the NCAA Tournament begins next week, there were still three players who stood out.

Joseph Tugler

While Flemings struggled to come through for the Cougars, junior guard Joseph Tugler ended up having a career night. He dropped a career-high 20 points, making 9-of-15 shots, while also grabbing 10 rebounds. He led the team in both categories and was certainly leaving it all out on the floor.

This marked the first time on the season that he has surpassed the 14-point threshold, and while he was giving it his all, it simply wasn't enough to make up for the rest of the starting unit's struggles.

Mercy Miller

For the first time since Dec. 13 against New Orleans, Mercy Miller scored more than 10 points. In 21 minutes off of the bench, Miller poured in 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field, 2-of-2 shooting from deep, while also grabbing seven rebounds.

While he isn't typically asked to be a primary scorer for Houston, he proved that he can get hot and make quite the impact on the offensive end.

Chase McCarty

The former top-100 recruit stood out in a big way in the loss. Just one game after playing nine minutes and not attempting a single shot in the team's win over Kansas in the semifinal round, McCarty also provided some much-needed scoring off the bench. With starters not named Tugler combining to shoot 8-of-22, McCart and Miller picked up the slack.

The IMG product scored 10 points in 19 minutes of action, hitting two threes on the night.

Certainly not the way Houston was hoping the Big 12 Tournament would go, but in reality, the NCAA Tournament is the main priority. At 28-6, they should get a top-four seed, and with a large chunk of this roster being a part of last year's runner-up squad, they know what it takes to win in the big dance.

Houston will find out their NCAA Tournament fate on Sunday.