LAS VEGAS — Emanuel Sharp scored 17 points and No. 6 Houston never trailed in beating Notre Dame 65-54 in a game that ended early Thursday morning in the Players Era Festival.
Terrance Arceneaux added 13 points for Houston (4-2), and Milos Uzan had 10 points and nine assists.
Tae Davis led the Fighting Irish (4-3) with 22 points and eight rebounds, and Braeden Shrewsberry scored 16 points.
Both teams came off overtime defeats the days before — Houston losing to No. 9 Alabama 85-80 and Notre Dame falling 85-84 to Rutgers.
The extra work and playing on consecutive nights showed in the second half. Notre Dame went from shooting 50% in the first half to 31% in the second 20 minutes, and Houston followed a 58.6% opening half by shooting 32.3%.
Both teams hit scoring droughts, but the Cougars had a little bit more left. Other than a tie game for 42 seconds, Houston played from in front the entire night.
Houston: LJ Cryer tied a career-high with 30 points in Tuesday's overtime loss to No. 9 Alabama, but shot just 2 for 11 against the Irish and scored six points. The Cougars, however, had enough other talent to prevail.
Notre Dame: The Irish weren't able to overcome such a performance, Matt Allocco had 24 points, 10 rebounds and five assists against Rutgers, but had eight points, five rebounds and four assists against Houston.
Notre Dame cut a 10-point second-half deficit to a point, but then didn't score for four minutes to allow Houston to remain in front.
Houston's bench outscored Notre Dame's 19-0.
Houston plays San Diego State in the third-place game on Saturday and Notre Dame faces No. 21 Creighton for seventh place.
