Houston 77, Texas-Pan American 65: TaShawn Thomas scored 19 points and grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds to lead the visiting Cougars over the Broncs.

L.J. Rose added a career-high 16 points and led all players with six assists and three steals for Houston, which improved to 2-0 for the fourth straight season. Danuel House pitched in 15 points for the Cougars, who shot 51.9 percent from the floor.

Javorn Farrell led the offense for Texas-Pan American, scoring 16 points. Shaquille Boga contributed 15 and Justin Leathers added 10, including 2-for-2 from 3-point range for the Broncs, who went just 4-of-17 from beyond the arc overall.

Houston, which led by as many as 12 points in the first half, took a 46-38 lead into halftime. The Broncs showed plenty of fight, starting the second stanza on a 15-5 run to to take a 53-51 lead with 13:21 remaining.

With the game tied at 59-59, Thomas' layup sparked an 11-2 run that featured six points from Jherrod Stiggers to help the Cougars take control of the game for good. Texas-Pan American managed to pull within 71-65 with 5:18 to play before .

GAME NOTEBOOK: The Cougars improved to 9-0 all-time over the Texas-Pan American. ... The status of Houston C Danrad Knowles, who sat for a second straight game after academic ineligibility forced him to miss all of last season, remained up in the air as the Cougars await word on a waiver request submitted to the NCAA on his behalf. ... Houston is looking for Stiggers, who shot 1-of-6 in the opener and started 1-of-6 again against the Broncs, to help fill the void left by last year's leading scorer, SG Joseph Young, who transferred to Oregon.