Joseph Tugler tallied 16 and four blocks while the Cougars forced 16 turnovers to secure an 86-68 victory over the Golden Bears in the Lake Tahoe Classic.<\/p>\n
Nov 9, 2026<\/p>\n
at<\/p>\n
1:45 am ET<\/p>\n
\u2022<\/p>\n
1 min read<\/p>\n
STATELINE, Nev. (AP) Dedan Thomas Jr. scored 20 points and had eight assists, Joseph Tugler added 16 points and four blocked shots and No. 10 Houston<\/a> beat California<\/a> 86-68 on Sunday night in the inaugural Caesars Lake Tahoe Classic.<\/p>\n Delrecco Gillespie 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 had 11 points, making three 3-pointers.<\/p>\n Mady Cooper led California (2-1) with 19 points, making five 3-pointers. Jordan Ross 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 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, visit the Top 25 here and see AP\u2019s full men\u2019s basketball coverage here<\/p>\n \n Copyright 2026 STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joseph Tugler tallied 16 and four blocks while the Cougars forced 16 turnovers to secure an 86-68 victory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,3369,9,8,4213,13674],"class_list":["post-523698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-golden-bears","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-college-basketball","tag-houston-cougars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523698","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=523698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}