Houston survives first-round scare against Northern Kentucky

Crisis averted. For now.

NCAA Tournament favorite Houston found itself in a dogfight with16-seed Northern Kentucky before eventually pulling away over halfway through the second half for a 63-52 victory.

But there might not be much celebration in the Cougars locker room after star senior point guard Marcus Sasser aggravated a groin injury and was limited to five points in 14 minutes.

He first suffered the injury in an AAC Tournament semifinal game against Cincinnati and missed the conference tournament title game, which Houston lost to Memphis, 75-65.

Sasser led Houston with 17.1 points per game this season and was second on the team with 31.1 minutes per game but his status for the team's next game is in doubt.

The Cougars were pegged as the best bet to win the national title before the tournament began but for a while on Thursday looked like they would fall victim to one of the greatest upsets in NCAA Tournament history.

Northern Kentucky was up to the task of pulling off just the second 16-over-1-seed win, tying the game at 36 four minutes into the second half.

But Houston pulled away late and the win sets the program up for a second-round game against No. 9-seed Auburn, a team much like Northern Kentucky in that its strength is its defense.

Both the Tigers and Norse have identical offensive ratings (105.4) while Auburn (97.2) has a slightly better defensive rating than Northern Kentucky (98.2).

Auburn has much more depth on offense, however. Four players averaged double-digits in points during the regular season for Auburn as opposed to only two for Northern Kentucky. Earlier on Thursday against Iowa, six Tigers scored at least 10 points.

Also unlike Northern Kentucky, Auburn will have a home-court advantage with the round-of-32 game scheduled to take place in Birmingham, a two-hour drive from Auburn's campus.

Houston withstood Northern Kentucky's best punch but it will be much more difficult for the Cougars to survive against the Tigers if they lose the offensive rebound battle 18-11 or the turnover battle 17-7 like they did on Thursday.

Sasser's injury status adds to the concern.

With the competition only getting tougher, the Cougars likely won't be so fortunate if they have any more off-nights.