Houston routs Idaho 78-47 in return to March Madness after losing in last year's championship game

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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Kingston Flemings scored 18 points, Emanuel Sharpe added 16 and Houston routed Idaho 78-47 Thursday night in its NCAA Tournament opener after losing in last year's championship game.

The Cougars (29-6), the second seed in the South Region, will play No. 10 seed Texas A&M in the second round on Saturday. The Aggies beat St. Mary's 63-50 on Thursday.

Freshman center Chris Cenac Jr. had a career-high 18 rebounds for Houston, which lost to Florida in last year's final.

“It's hard to make this tournament. It's really hard,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “There are so, so many good teams that don't get a chance to play in this. Coach Pribble's kids were well-coached. They had a good plan. They fought. They played really hard, and they scrapped.”

Kolton Mitchell scored 14 points for 15th-seeded Idaho, a heavy underdog making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1990.

The Vandals (21-15) qualified for the NCAA Tournament by winning four games in five days to win the Big Sky championship, despite being seeded seventh in the conference tournament.

“Not the result we were looking for, obviously, but at this point I'm just filled with an extreme sense of of pride and gratitude,” Idaho coach Alex Pribble said. “I think our guys really battled to put themselves in a position where they could play in March Madness. They played seven games in 13 days leading up to this, an emotionally draining run through their conference tournament. You know, you get paired up with a team like Houston, I think a lot of teams would have kind of backed away, and I don't think our guys did that at all."

Houston fell behind 10-7, then outscored Idaho 41-14 over the next 15 minutes for a 48-24 lead at the break. Flemings, who made all six of his shots from the field, led the Cougars' attack with 14 points while Sharp (12 points) made four of five shots, including three 3-pointers.

Flemings, a freshman, credited the defense with igniting the offense.

“That's what always happens,” he said. "Defense and rebounding, and then we can start scoring on the offensive end. Offense is going to follow the defense. I think once we started getting stops and kills, that's really when our offense started exploding in the first half."

The Vandals made eight of 30 shots (26%) and didn't score for nearly 10 minutes of the first half. Houston extended the lead to 67-38 on a short jumper by Flemings with 7:12 left in the game.

Houston played a strong all-around game, shooting 50% from the field and 53% from beyond the arc. The Cougars also outrebounded Idaho 47-32 and outscored the Vandals 36-13 in the paint.

Sampson faced Idaho seven times when he was the coach at Washington State from 1987-94. He won three and lost four.

“Congratulations to those guys, I wish them nothing but the best going forward," Sampson said.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness