Houston 37, SMU 27

 

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Team Stat Comparison
1st Downs	24	20
Total Yards	504	343
Passing	147	299
Rushing	357	44
Penalties	10-87	4-29
3rd Down Conversions	5-10	8-16
4th Down Conversions	0-2	0-2
Turnovers	1	2
Possession	29:00	31:00

Individual Leaders

Houston Passing   C/ATT YDS TD INT Kolb 12/21 147 1 0	Southern Methodist Passing   C/ATT YDS TD INT Willis 23/36 299 3 0
Houston Rushing   CAR YDS TD LG Alridge 13 225 2 77 Battle 15 136 1 61 Kolb 16 2 1 18	Southern Methodist Rushing   CAR YDS TD LG Martin 11 30 0 7 Willis 16 16 0 15 Dorsey 1 1 0 1
Houston Receiving   REC YDS TD LG Marshall 5 59 0 25 Ealy 3 25 1 11 Avery 2 37 0 26 Alridge 1 33 0 33	Southern Methodist Receiving   REC YDS TD LG Sanders 9 151 2 49 Warren 7 68 0 19 Sledge 3 17 0 11 Martin 1 37 1 37

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER				HOU	SMU
	TD	13:05	BIREN EALY 5 YD PASS FROM KEVIN KOLB (BEN BELL KICK) Drive info: 3 plays, 21 yards.	7	0
	TD	8:26	ANTHONY ALRIDGE 77 YD RUN (BEN BELL KICK) Drive info: 2 plays, 77 yards.	14	0
	TD	6:51	DEMYRON MARTIN 37 YD PASS FROM JUSTIN WILLIS (THOMAS MORSTEAD KICK) Drive info: 4 plays, 62 yards.	14	7
	TD	1:57	EMMANUEL SANDERS 17 YD PASS FROM JUSTIN WILLIS (THOMAS MORSTEAD KICK) Drive info: 9 plays, 91 yards.	14	14
SECOND QUARTER				HOU	SMU
	FG	12:58	THOMAS MORSTEAD 42 YD FG Drive info: 4 plays, -1 yards.	14	17
	TD	0:36	EMMANUEL SANDERS 16 YD PASS FROM JUSTIN WILLIS (THOMAS MORSTEAD KICK) Drive info: 12 plays, 61 yards.	14	24
THIRD QUARTER				HOU	SMU
	FG	3:51	BEN BELL 22 YD FG Drive info: 19 plays, 76 yards.	17	24
	TD	2:05	ANTHONY ALRIDGE 77 YD RUN (BEN BELL KICK) Drive info: 1 plays, 77 yards.	24	24
FOURTH QUARTER				HOU	SMU
	FG	12:12	THOMAS MORSTEAD 35 YD FG Drive info: 11 plays, 50 yards.	24	27
	TD	6:52	KEVIN KOLB 2 YD RUN (BEN BELL KICK) Drive info: 14 plays, 94 yards.	31	27
	TD	4:05	JACKIE BATTLE 61 YD RUN (MISSED KICK) Drive info: 1 plays, 46 yards.	37	27

DALLAS (AP) -- Anthony Alridge ran for a career-high 225 yards and scored two touchdowns to lead Houston to a 37-27 win over Southern Methodist on Saturday.

Houston (8-3, 6-1 Conference USA) clinched a berth in the conference title game Dec. 1.

Quarterback Kevin Kolb scored on a two-yard run to finish a 14-play, 94-yard drive which gave Houston a 31-27 lead with 6:52 left in the game. The key play on that drive occurred when Kolb completed a 26-yard pass to Donnie Avery on third-and-19 from the Houston 7-yard line.

On the next possession by the Mustangs (5-5, 3-3), the Cougars' Cody Pree recovered James Mapps' fumble at the SMU 46-yard line with 4:42 left. On the next play, Jackie Battle scored on a 61-yard touchdown run.

Kolb completed 12 of 21 passes for 147 yards and one touchdown. Houston had 357 yards rushing for the game, 200 yards more than its season average.

Alridge's second 77-yard touchdown run of the game tied the score at 24 with 2:05 left in the third quarter before the Mustangs briefly regained the lead on a 35-yard field goal by Thomas Morstead with 12:12 left in the game.

After falling behind 14-0 in the game's first 7 minutes, SMU scored 24 consecutive points for a 24-14 halftime lead.

Justin Willis had scoring tosses of 16 and 17 yards to Emmanuel Sanders and a 37-yard strike to DeMyron Martin during that stretch. Willis finished the game 23 of 36 for 299 yards.

The 17-yard touchdown pass to Sanders tied the game with 1:57 left in the first quarter and gave Willis, a redshirt freshman, the school record for touchdown passes in a season with 22. The previous record had been set by Chuck Hixson in 1968.

Sanders led all receivers with 151 yards on nine receptions. ore.