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Memphis beats Houston to win C-USA title

Mar 10, 2007 - 7:04 PM MEMPHIS, Tennessee (Ticker) -- Chris Douglas-Roberts and Memphis picked an appropriate place to wrap up their domination of Conference USA.

Douglas-Roberts scored 17 points to lead the fifth-ranked Tigers to a 71-59 triumph over Houston in the championship game of the Conference USA tournament.

It was the 22nd consecutive victory for Memphis (30-3), which went 16-0 in C-USA action in the regular season and cruised to a pair of easy wins over the first two rounds of this event.

Fittingly enough, the Tigers secured their second consecutive automatic NCAA Tournament berth on their home floor, where they went undefeated this season. Memphis has won 32 consecutive home contests and has not lost here since falling to Texas on January 2, 2006.

Antonio Anderson also scored 17 points for the Tigers, who became the first C-USA team to go undefeated in the conference regular season and then win the league title.

Houston (18-15) jumped out to a 24-19 lead on Jahmar Thorpe's dunk with 9:39 left in the first half.

But Memphis closed out the half on a 21-5 run capped by freshman Doneal Mack's 3-pointer that make it 40-29 at the break.

Oliver Lafayette scored 23 points to pace the Cougars, who were making their first C-USA title game appearance. Houston had not played in a conference championship game since 1992, when the school was in the Southwest Conference.