Dedan Thomas Jr. Scores 20 as No. 10 Houston Never Trails in 86-68 Win Over California

California came to Lake Tahoe with a 2-0 record, a 30-point scorer from its last game and a coach who had never seen Kelvin Sampson from the other bench. It left without leading for a single second. No. 10 Houston controlled the game from the opening possession, got 20 points and eight assists from Dedan Thomas Jr. and beat California 86-68 on Sunday night at the Tahoe Blue Event Center in Stateline, Nevada.

The Cougars (2-0) led for 99 percent of the night in the Caesars Lake Tahoe Classic and built a lead that reached 23 points. Joseph Tugler added 16 points and four blocks, Delrecco Gillespie had 13 points and eight rebounds, and Chase McCarty hit three 3-pointers in only 12 minutes. Michael Cooper led Cal (2-1) with 19 points off the bench, and Jordan Ross added 15, but the Golden Bears never got closer than two points. A crowd of 2,496 watched it unfold.

The Thomas Tempo

The game's first basket told the story. Tugler caught a pass from Thomas and dropped in an 8-footer 18 seconds in, and McCarty followed with a pair of 3-pointers inside the opening 89 seconds, the first one also set up by Thomas. Houston led 8-3 before Cal had a chance to settle into its half-court sets.

Cal answered the early push. Sammie Yeanay buried a 3, Ross scored on a layup and Nojus Indrusaitis, who had 30 points against Radford on Wednesday, knocked down a 3 to make it 10-8 with 17:08 left in the half. Ross made it 12-10 with a layup at 16:30. Then Tugler went to work in the middle of the floor and Houston ripped off a 10-1 run that pushed the margin to 22-11 by the 14:10 mark. Chendall Weaver punctuated it with two dunks 16 seconds apart.

Thomas, in a second game with the Cougars, played 35 minutes and committed one turnover. The senior point guard went 9 of 15 from the field and 1 for 1 from deep, but the more important numbers were the eight assists and the pace. Houston pushed whenever it got a stop and turned that into 20 fast-break points to Cal's eight. It was the second straight game of Thomas running the show after a 16-point debut in the opener against La Salle, and the early returns suggest Sampson has a lead guard who can organize a deep roster without coughing it up.

Tugler was the other early engine. Houston's first 16 points included four Tugler field goals, three of them assisted, and the forward finished 7 of 12 with two steals to go with the four blocks. Four fouls kept the minutes at 27, which might be the only thing that slowed Tugler down.

Six Points in 58 Seconds

The stretch that broke the game open came from the bench. Cal had trimmed the deficit to 24-16 on a Jovani Ruff jumper with 11:45 left in the half, and the Golden Bears had a chance to make it a real game. Instead, McCarty buried a third 3-pointer of the half at 10:08 off a Kordel Jefferson feed, and then Braden East took over.

East scored on a layup at 9:32, hit a 3 from 25 feet off a Mercy Miller assist at 9:09 and made a free throw at 8:34. That was six points in 58 seconds, and it finished a 9-0 run that put Houston up 33-16. East finished with eight points on 3-of-3 shooting, five rebounds and two blocks in 16 minutes, the kind of line that does not jump off a box score but changes the shape of a half.

Cal deserves credit for the response. Cooper hit an 11-foot jumper, Ross scored twice in 11 seconds, and Cooper then drilled back-to-back 3-pointers at 6:08 and 5:32. That 12-2 run cut the lead to 35-28, the closest Cal would be the rest of the night. Houston closed the half on an 8-4 burst, capped by a Miller layup off a Thomas assist and a Thomas layup with 34 seconds left, and went to the locker room up 43-32.

Cooper Kept Cal Breathing

Cooper was the one Golden Bear who consistently solved Houston's defense. The reserve went 6 of 11 from the field and 5 of 8 from beyond the arc, added two steals and a block and played 29 minutes, more than any Cal starter except Indrusaitis. Ross finished 7 of 11 with five assists, and Ruff chipped in eight off the bench.

The problem was everybody else. Indrusaitis, coming off that 30-point night, was held to six points on 2-of-5 shooting and committed four turnovers. Yeanay scored nine on 3-of-9 shooting. Cal's starters combined for 36 points, and the bench outscored Houston's reserves 32-18, which says plenty about how much of the load Cooper had to carry. Semetri Carr grabbed a team-high six rebounds without scoring.

Mark Madsen's team made 9 of 26 threes and shot 44 percent overall, respectable numbers against a Sampson defense. The damage came on the other end of the possessions that never produced a shot. Cal turned it over 16 times, and Houston converted those mistakes into 22 points. The Golden Bears scored 11 points off Houston's nine giveaways.

Fourteen Steals and 50 in the Paint

The second half opened like the first. Thomas hit a 3 from 25 feet off a McCarty pass 54 seconds in, and Gillespie scored on consecutive layups at 17:58 and 17:24. That 7-0 burst made it 50-32.

Gillespie, a graduate transfer from Kent State, scored 11 of 13 points after halftime and finished 6 of 10 with a 3-pointer. Gillespie entered the night three points shy of 1,000 career points, per Houston's game preview, and the layup at 17:58 was the milestone bucket, as the program noted on X. Tugler added two jumpers in the first five minutes of the half, East hit a 12-footer, and Weaver scored on a layup from Jefferson at 13:13 to make it 62-39. Gillespie then hit a 3 at 12:35 to restore the 23-point cushion.

The team numbers explain why Cal never had a realistic path back. Houston outscored the Golden Bears 50-24 in the paint, shot 52 percent from the field and made 10 of 11 free throws. The Cougars piled up 14 steals and seven blocks, with Miller, Weaver and Thomas combining for eight of those steals. Houston won the rebounding battle 35-31, grabbed 11 offensive boards and had 18 assists on 35 made field goals. Miller scored eight points on 4-of-4 free throw shooting and added three steals, while Weaver had six points, six rebounds and three steals in 15 minutes.

Cal made one last push. Ruff scored twice on assists from Amier Ali, and Cooper hit another 3 at 10:33 to complete a 7-0 run that cut the deficit to 67-51. Gillespie answered with a dunk off a Tugler pass, and Houston outscored Cal 17-15 after the 9:20 mark to close out the 18-point win.

What It Means for Both Sides

For Houston, this was the first real look at how Sampson's new pieces fit away from home. Thomas and Gillespie are both in their first season with the program, and both looked comfortable in big roles. The rotation went 10 deep, Jefferson handed out three assists in five minutes, and nine different Cougars scored.

The defensive identity is already there. Holding a team to 68 points while forcing 16 turnovers is what Houston does, and the transition offense that came off those turnovers is what makes this version dangerous. If Thomas keeps playing at this turnover rate, the Cougars will be a tough out in the Big 12.

For Cal, there is no shame in losing to a top-10 team in early November, and Cooper's shooting is a real weapon off the bench. The concern is ball security, and the Golden Bears will see more pressure like this in ACC play.

Houston returns to Fertitta Center to face Jacksonville State on Wednesday, Nov. 11. Cal goes home to host No. 21 USC in Berkeley the same night, the second straight ranked opponent for the Golden Bears.

The Takeaway

Houston did not need a perfect night to win by 18 on a neutral floor. The Cougars made only six 3-pointers, gave up 19 to a reserve and still never trailed. That is the scary part. When the defense creates 22 points off turnovers and the point guard runs the offense with one giveaway in 35 minutes, the margin takes care of itself.

Sources: ESPN box score (opens in a new tab) and play-by-play, University of Houston Athletics game preview (opens in a new tab), Cal Athletics, Houston Men's Basketball on X. More men's college basketball coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: Houston Athletics (file photo).