[Quality88]

HOUSTON — Billy Gillispie doesn't believe in jinxes. It would be hard to blame him if he chose to start.

The University of Kentucky basketball coach saw his team fall to Houston 83-69 last night at Hofheinz Pavilion, a game in which the Wildcats welcomed back Jodie Meeks but lost freshman Patrick Patterson to an injury.

"I don't believe in those kind of snakebites," Gillisipe said. "Those are things that happen. It takes you aback when it happens at the time that it did tonight."

That time was just before tipoff, when Patterson told Gillispie it would be best if he didn't play on the ankle he rolled at Monday night's shootaround.

Without Patterson, Houston handed UK's its fourth straight loss for the first time since 1989-90.

Dion Dowell led the Cougars (10-1) with 19 points. Robert McKiver scored 16, and Lanny Smith added 12.

Joe Crawford had 28 points and Meeks 21 in his return for UK (4-5). No other player scored more than six.

Patterson entered the game as the Cats' leading rebounder at 8.1 per game and was second on the team in scoring at 16.4 points per game.

And though his absence was hardly the sole reason for UK's loss, Patterson's presence was missed.

The Cougars had their way offensively for much of the game, beating UK off the dribble and knocking down open three-pointers.

But their most dominant performance was on the backboards. Houston outrebounded UK 38-33 and outscored the Cats 28-7 on second-chance points.



"We just haven't gotten a defensive rebound all year, and it keeps on happening," Gillispie said. "You've either got to be tough enough to push your man out of bounds, or you've got to really go after the ball with great aggression. And right now we're not doing either one of them."

The Cougars opened the second half on a 16-5 run that had a crowd of 8,517 rocking and UK reeling.

Seven of Houston's points on that run came on putbacks by Tafari Toney. "We expected to win tonight," Houston coach Tom Penders said. "It didn't matter who Kentucky had on the court. We felt like we were the better team."

The Cougars looked like it in building a 25-point second-half lead.

UK pulled within 10 points with 2:52 to play on a three-point play by Crawford, but Houston answered with five straight points, a dunk by Dowell and a three-point play by Kelvin Lewis.

The second half wasn't hotly contested, but it got heated.

Tempers flared with 10:57 left, when Crawford committed a hard foul on Houston's Marcus Malone, who was on his way to a breakaway layup.

Crawford was whistled for an intentional foul, and several players from both teams stared each other down before officials stepped in.

Malone made two free throws to stretch Houston's lead to 66-43.

With 8:20 to play, Gillispie was hit with a technical foul when he stepped on the court to argue with an official. Gillispie apparently wanted a foul call on a loose-ball scramble in which Meeks hit the ground.

Meeks limped out of the game but returned later.

"It's a little sore but nothing I can't handle," he said. "Charley horses, cramping a little bit. I'll get some fluids, and I'll get back to work."

Houston hands UK 4th straight loss