WICHITA, Kan. (AP) – LJ Cryer matched a career high with 30 points, including two free throws with 14.2 seconds left, and No. 1 seed Houston held on to beat eighth-seeded Gonzaga 81-76 on Saturday night to reach the Sweet 16 for the sixth straight NCAA Tournament.
 
J'Wan Roberts added 18 points and Milos Uzan made two last free throws with 2.1 seconds left, giving the Cougars (32-4) their 15th consecutive win and pushing them into a regional semifinal against No. 4 seed Purdue on Friday night in Indianapolis.
 
Houston also ended Gonzaga's run of nine straight Sweet 16s, which had been the longest active streak in the nation.
 
"It's not just winning the game," Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson said. "It's beating a great program like Gonzaga."
 
The Bulldogs (26-9) trailed 76-67 with just over 2 minutes to go when Graham Ike made two free throws to start their comeback bid, and most of it wound up coming at the foul line. And when Uzan turned the ball over and Khalif Battle made two free throws of his own, the Bulldogs had pulled to 77-76 with 21 seconds remaining.
 
Houston got the ball to Cryer, who was fouled, and he made both of his free throws to extend the lead. At the other end, Ja'Vier Francis blocked Battle's tying 3-point try from the corner, and Uzan knocked down his foul shots to seal the win.
 
"Gonzaga is as good as anyone we've played all year," Sampson said. "Had they been seeded somewhere else, that's a team that could have had a chance to get to the Elite Eight, or maybe the Final Four. They're that good."
 
Ike finished with 27 points for the Bulldogs. Battle scored 17 and Ryan Nembhard had 10 points and 11 assists. Braden Huff added 11 points.
 
"It ended up being just a great, great basketball game, especially the way our guys fought their way back into it. I'm so proud of the way they hung with it," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. "Houston was everything and more than we thought it would be."
 
Given that no program has won more games than Gonzaga and Houston over the past eight seasons, it seemed as if their second-round matchup in the Midwest Region would have been better suited for the second weekend.
 
Or even the Final Four, where the Bulldogs and Cougars were on opposite sides of the bracket in 2021.
 
The Zags finished shooting 50 percent from the field, including 9-of-20 from behind-the-arc. GU was 60.9 percent from the field in the second half, making 6-of-9 from three-point range. The Bulldogs were a perfect 15-for-15 from the free-throw line in the game. Gonzaga entered the game as the national leader in assists, and met its average against Houston with 19.