Houston Cougars (1st) American Athletic Conference (26 - 5)

SAN ANTONIO -- Grind-it-out offense and stop after stop on the defensive end has become the de rigueur style of play for some present-day college basketball teams. Never has a game epitomized that style more than the Elite Eight slugfest between Villanova and Houston on Saturday.

The Wildcats shot 28.8 percent and won. The Cougars shot 29.8 percent, made only 1 of 20 3-point tries and came up just short.

Jermaine Samuels racked up 16 points and 10 rebounds for Villanova as the second-seeded Wildcats earned a 50-44 victory over fifth-seeded Houston in the NCAA Tournament South Region final on Saturday.

Caleb Daniels added 12 points for the Wildcats, who will play in their seventh Final Four and first since 2018. They will face the winner of Sunday's Midwest Region final between Kansas and Miami on April 2 in New Orleans.

"It was like playing against our own selves," Daniels said of Houston. "They were just as physical as we were. It was a literal street fight."

Villanova led by seven at halftime and by 40-29 with 10:47 to play before the Cougars clawed back. Jamal Shead's jumper brought Houston to within 46-42 with 1:25 to play but Samuels responded with a layup. Kyler Edwards canned two free throws for the Cougars with 59 seconds remaining, but Houston would never get closer the rest of the way.

"We really didn't talk as much at the end about how we were going to score -- we're talking about how we're going to stop (Houston)," Villanova coach Jay Wright said afterward.

"We just knew watching this team defensively that we weren't going to come out and just outscore them -- we were going to have to shut them down, prevent them from getting to the offensive glass. ... What you can control is trying to get stops yourself."

Taze Moore had 15 points and 10 rebounds for Houston (32-6), which ends its season one win short of a second straight trip to the Final Four.

"If you told me before the game that we're going to hold (Villanova) to 28 percent from the field and that they're going to shoot 23 percent from the 3-point line and we'd lose I wouldn't have believed it," Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. "Our kids guarded -- man, did they guard."

Once again, Villanova -- which is currently on pace to break the NCAA single-season record for highest free-throw percentage (83.0 percent) -- was deadly at the line. The Wildcats were a perfect 15-for-15 from the charity stripe and have missed just six free-throw attempts all tournament (53-for-59, 89.8 percent).

The Wildcats were raring to go early, scoring the game's first five points and streaking out to a 9-2 lead at the 15:06 mark. Houston pulled to within 16-10 on a layup by Shead with 9:59 to play in the half, but then the Cougars went more than five minutes without a basket, missing six shots over that stretch.

Villanova led by as many as 11 points before Moore hit back-to-back buckets to allow the Cougars to pull to 23-18 with 1:57 remaining. The Wildcats expanded their advantage to 27-20 at the break.

Daniels and Samuels paced Villanova with seven points at the half while Moore's six points led the Cougars. Both teams struggled from the floor over the first 20 minutes, with Houston outshooting the Wildcats 30.8 percent to 28 percent.

Houston cut its deficit back to five points on Edwards' jumper with 15:31 to play but the Wildcats answered, running off six of the ensuing eight points to go up 40-29 and re-establishing their largest lead.

"We had a lot of opportunities. They didn't go in, and that happens," Sampson said. "I'm disappointed we lost. We felt like this was a game we could win -- not should win, could win. Gotta go earn it."

It was the first meeting between the programs since 1991 and the second time they've squared off in the Elite Eight.

--By Steve Habel, Field Level Media