Tennessee Volunteers vs. Houston Cougars Recap MAR 30TH 2025

INDIANAPOLIS LJ Cryer delivered 17 points, seven rebounds and four assists as No. 1 seed Houston dominated early and pulled away late for a 69-50 victory over No. 2 Tennessee in the Midwest Region final Sunday.

The Cougars (34-4) claimed their first Final Four berth since 2021 by throttling the Vols with the nation's best defense. Houston's man-to-man harassed Tennessee into missing its first 14 3-point attempts and 22 of its first 27 shots overall to build a 22-point lead that never got smaller than 10.

Houston's quest for its first NCAA title-game appearance since 1984 will continue Saturday in San Antonio against Duke. The only other meeting between the Blue Devils and Cougars came in last year's Sweet Sixteen when Duke claimed a 54-51 win in Dallas.

Emanuel Sharp scored 11 of his 16 points in the final 10 minutes for Houston, which never trailed. The Cougars won the boards by a 42-35 margin while forcing Tennessee into 28.8 percent shooting from the field and 5 of 29 from 3-point range.

Jordan Gainey produced 17 points off the bench and Chaz Lanier added 17 to pace Tennessee (30-8), which came one step shy of its first Final Four appearance for the second year in a row.

When Zakai Zeigler finally cashed a 3-pointer with 39 seconds left in the first half ending their 0-for-14 start from long range the pro-Tennessee crowd issued a muted mixture of roars, exhales and Bronx cheers.

Houston carried a 34-15 lead into halftime, which inspired Tennessee to start pressing full-court to force the action.

Gainey did his best to get the Vols back into it drilling a 3-pointer, a putback, a driving scoop and another 3-pointer in a 2:23 stretch to slice Houston's lead to 44-30 with 13:19 to go.

The Vols got as close as 50-40 on Darlinstone Dubar's free throw with 5:42 left. Sharp answered 13 seconds later with a triple.

Gainey slashed to the hoop, but rimmed his lefty layup. Sharp and Mylik Wilson responded with 3-pointers to boost the lead to 59-42 with 4:04 to play and send some Tennessee fans to the exits ignoring the reminder by the public address announcer about the severe weather and tornado watch blanketing the Indianapolis area like the Houston defense.

Lindsey Willhite,