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Memphis runs winning streak to 17 games

Feb 25, 2007 - 10:34 PM MEMPHIS, Tennessee (Ticker) -- Rob McKiver was unable to slow down the nation's hottest team.

Chris Douglas-Roberts scored 19 points as No. 7 Memphis overcame a big game from McKiver en route to a 77-64 Conference USA victory over Houston.

The Tigers (25-3, 14-0) placed just three players in double figures but had little trouble in extending the nation's longest winning streak to 17 games.

"We played all right," Memphis coach John Calipari said. "They were coming in with high energy. We knew they would. They made a couple of shots, and we made a couple of errors defensively to keep them around."

Joey Dorsey added 16 points and Jeremy Hunt 14 for Memphis, which has road games against Texas El-Paso and Southern Methodist next week as it attempts to complete an unbeaten campaign in conference play.

McKiver tried to keep the Cougars (15-13, 9-5) in it as he scored 32 points on 13-of-28 shooting. The junior made 5-of-15 attempts from 3-point range.

Despite McKiver's efforts, the Tigers were able to overcome a sluggish start. They used a 19-5 run in less than eight minutes to close the first half and take a 38-26 lead.

McKiver drilled a shot from the arc with under 13 minutes remaining to pull the Cougars within 51-42. But Douglas-Roberts responded with a jumper to trigger an 11-4 surge to give the Tigers control for good.

"We needed more of our guys to step up today," Houston coach Tom Penders said. "We had to have more than one guy show up. On the offensive end, we thought we could hold our own on the backboard, but we had to have more than one guy show up offensively. Robert Lee played a very good game."