UH: Pollard catches fire when Cougars need him most

At his lowest moment this season, Devonta Pollard took refuge in the place that had betrayed him.

He went to the gym. And each day he stayed there for hours.

Pollard took shots over and over, the same ones that had suddenly stopped falling. Just like that, he went from one of the University of Houston's most reliable offensive producers to putting out an all-points bulletin on his shot that vanished in possibly the worst two-week stretch of his career.

"There were a couple of games where I couldn't make a shot and I couldn't make a free throw," Pollard said. "I just couldn't do anything offensively. As a basketball player, if you're not strong mentally, that starts to mess with your head. That's what happened to me."

The 6-8 forward had his best game of the season Wednesday, scoring a career-high 34 points to help the Cougars erase a 13-point deficit and beat Memphis 98-90 to stay in the wide-open American Athletic Conference race.

Pollard made 14 of 24 shots, from just about anywhere on the floor - and often answering a Memphis bucket - so that UH coach Kelvin Sampson joked "he became World B. Free out there."

Catching fire

Pollard became the 57th player in UH history to score 30 points, and it was the most since eventual national scoring leader Aubrey Coleman had 38 points against Tulane in 2010.

"Pollard was on fire," Memphis coach Josh Pastner said.

With a rediscovered shot, Pollard is averaging 23.3 points and shooting nearly 60 percent for the Cougars (17-7, 7-5 American Athletic Conference), who play Central Florida (11-11, 5-6) at 2 p.m. Saturday at Hofheinz Pavilion. Pollard had another big game with 23 points on 7-of-13 shooting in a Feb. 1 upset of then-No. 12 SMU.

But in the two weeks before that, Pollard had some of his worst shooting games of the season, including a 0-for-7 performance with two free throws against Connecticut. He averaged 7.6 points and shot 42.1 percent during that span as the Cougars struggled through a season-long, four-game losing streak.

Pollard said a conversation with Sampson helped get him through it.

"He had talked with me and told me 'don't worry about the shot, just focus on defense and rebounding and it will come to you,' " Pollard said. "I kept going to the gym in my off time and working on my game.

"Come game time, I focused on defensive rebounds, and I was back to myself. I couldn't let my team down."

Right time to bring heat

In his new third-floor office at the Guy V. Lewis Development Center, Sampson has a large window with a bird's-eye view of the practice court below. When he heard a ball bouncing, most of the time Sampson knew who was working out.

"Devonta has fallen in love with the game of basketball," Sampson said. "I can tell his maturity and how far he has come as a player and as a person by how much time he spends in the gym now. I'm just really proud of him. He's developed into a leader."

His turnaround has come at an opportune time for the Cougars with AAC leading scorer Rob Gray Jr. out the last three games with a sprained ankle. Gray is not far from returning, Sampson said Thursday, but it's doubtful he plays against the Knights.

Pollard is second on the team in scoring at 13.6 points per game, which ranks 11th in the AAC.

At the same time, Pollard came off the bench in six consecutive games after being in the starting lineup most of the season. Sampson said it had nothing to do with his struggles but not having Pollard and junior forward Danrad "Chicken" Knowles on the floor at the same time.

When the time came against Memphis, Sampson told Pollard he was putting the ball in his hands.

"It did not get overwhelming," he said. "I felt like I worked on my game long enough and hard enough to be able to do what I did."