Mark on comeback win to lift UH to fourth straight Sweet Sixteen: 'We came out on fire'

It was about nearly 40 years ago the last time the University of Houston Cougars (UH) men’s basketball team went to the Sweet Sixteen round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I tournament more than once – three straight times during what was known as the Phi Slama Jama era to be exact. 

The current crop under Kelvin Sampson defeated the University of Auburn Tigers 81-64 in the tournament’s second round on Saturday to advance to a program-best fourth consecutive Sweet Sixteen appearance. 

“The Madness continues,” the top-seeded Cougars, who draw fifth-seeded University of Miami (FL) next, said in a postgame tweet.

The showdown with Auburn was essentially a tale of two halves for UH, which had fielded questions about top scorer Marcus Sasser’s health since the American Athletic Conference (AAC) tournament earlier this month. 

Sasser, the conference’s player of the year and a consensus first-team All-American, injured his groin in the Cougars’ AAC semifinal victory over the University of Louisville. 

According to an Associated Press (AP) article that was run on the team’s website, the Cougars found themselves 10 points behind Auburn at halftime before redshirt sophomore and Dickinson native Tramon Mark helped spark a successful rally on the other side of the break.

Mark led UH by scoring a career-best 26 points, the effort complemented by backcourt partner Sasser’s 22 points, the AP reported. 

Injuries forced both Mark and Sasser to cut the previous campaign short, but the Cougars managed to make the Elite Eight. 

Per Mark, his team saw an opportunity coming out of the locker room in Birmingham, Alabama and seized it. 

"We came out on fire," the underclassman told the AP. "Everything was clicking for us in the second half."

While UH shot approximately 42% from the field, it proved formidable on defense throughout the second half. 

The AP reported that the Cougars swatted a dozen Auburn shots, with freshman Jarace Walker and redshirt junior J’Wan Roberts combining for 11 blocks. 

UH and the University of Alabama are the remaining No. 1 seeds in the Big Dance after the University of Kansas (KU) saw its national championship reign end in a 72-71 loss to the University of Arkansas on Sunday while Purdue University fell 63-58 to Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) on Friday. 

FDU joined the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) as the only No. 16 seeds in tournament history to win a first-round game.