{"id":523548,"date":"2026-11-09T07:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T07:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/523548\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T07:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T07:12:08","slug":"thomas-scores-20-points-as-no-10-houston-dominates-inside-against-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/523548\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas scores 20 points as No. 10 Houston dominates inside against California"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATELINE, Nev. — – Dedan Thomas Jr<\/a>. scored 20 points and had eight assists, Joseph Tugler<\/a> added 16 points and four blocked shots and No. 10 Houston beat California 86-68 on Sunday night in the inaugural Caesars Lake Tahoe Classic.<\/p>\n

Delrecco Gillespie<\/a> added 13 points and eight rebounds for the Cougars (2-0), who shot 52% from the field and outscored the Golden Bears 50-24 in the paint. Chase McCarty<\/a> had 11 points, making three 3-pointers.<\/p>\n

Mady Cooper led California (2-1) with 19 points, making five 3-pointers. Jordan Ross<\/a> added 15 points and five assists for the Golden Bears, who made nine of 26 attempts from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n

Houston turned an 11-point halftime advantage into a 23-point lead midway through the second half. California answered with a 14-4 run to pull within 13, but the Cougars maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way behind efficient shooting and a dominant inside game.<\/p>\n

Houston forced 16 turnovers, converting them into 22 points. The Cougars finished with 14 steals and seven blocked shots while holding California to 44% shooting.<\/p>\n

Houston led 43-32 at halftime and extended its advantage to 23 points in the second half. The Cougars led throughout after taking the lead in the opening moments.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Houston: Hosts Jacksonville State on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

California: Hosts No. 21 Southern California on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here<\/a>, visit the Top 25 here<\/a> and see AP’s full men’s basketball coverage here<\/a>br\/]<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATELINE, Nev. — – Dedan Thomas Jr. scored 20 points and had eight assists, Joseph Tugler added 16…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[199990,7,3369,9,8,750,13674,24795],"class_list":["post-523548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-199990","tag-california","tag-california-golden-bears","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-espn","tag-houston-cougars","tag-mens-college-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}