Houston basketball’s Kelvin Sampson reacts to Jamal Shead’s buzzer-beater vs. Oklahoma

No. 1 ranked Houston basketball continued their winning ways on Saturday night, beating the Oklahoma Sooners at the buzzer thanks to a Jamal Shead game-winner with just seconds left. Shead actually missed a lay-up but managed to collect his own rebound and drain a short jumper.

Head coach Kelvin Sampson said the plan was to get a clean look near the rim. Via ESPN:

“The main thing [on the last shot] was to get it to the rim,” Houston basketball HC Kelvin Sampson said. “We weren’t going to shoot anything outside of 5 feet. There were three ways to win that game — a whistle, make the shot or [grab] an offensive rebound and put it in — and we got the third one.”

The Cougars blew a 15-point lead against Oklahoma but managed to get it done in the end.

“Winning DNA. We had a lot of things go against us tonight. … We were just plugging the holes in the boat up.”

Houston basketball now sits at 26-3 on the season and 13-3 in Big 12 play. LJ Cryer was the star of the show in this contest, pouring in 23 points while J’Wan Roberts added 20 points, too. It was also a special victory for Sampson, who coached OU for 12 years from 1994 to 2006.

Next up for the Cougars is UCF on Wednesday before the season finale against the Kansas Jayhawks. They will head into the NCAA Tournament as a top seed and just like years past, Houston is seen as a legitimate contender to win the Big Dance. We’ll see if they can finish the campaign strong.