Landry Sizzles; Rockets Win

Former Purdue standout and NBA rookie Carl Landry returned to his college roots on Saturday night and scored a season high 22 points to lead the Rockets to a 106-103 comeback victory over the Indiana Pacers.

While stars Yao Ming (17 points and 12 rebounds) and Tracy McGrady (19 points and nine assists) struggled with their strokes from the field, hitting a combined 10 of 31 attempts, it was the 13 points that Landry scored in the fourth quarter that led Houston's drive to a come-from-behind win.

The Rockets woes were not only attributable to the lackluster play of the Ming/McGrady duo. Assisting in the misery were point guard Rafer Alston's eight misses on 11 attempts and Steve Novak's inability to convert every one of his field goal opportunities. With the team mired in a catastrophic shooting slump, Rockets head coach Rick Adelman elected to give Landry a chance to prove his worth in just his 13th game of the season. The local college hero delivered in electrifying fashion, leading Houston to a three point victory after finding itself down by five with only 4:28 remaining on the clock.

With his recent play, Landry appears to have found himself a spot within Adelman's rotation. Houston travels to Milwaukee today, Landry's hometown, which means Rockets fans can only hope for more of the same.

Here's an interesting tidbit from last night's game, courtesy of the only in the NCAA rulebook files: The Purdue basketball team, hailing from West Lafayette, Indiana were en route to Champaign, Illinois last night. The squad wanted to stop at Conseco Fieldhouse (one hour from the Purdue campus) to watch their former teammate battle against the Pacers. However, the NCAA only lets college teams make pit stops on road trips if a practice session is to be held. Therefore, the Boilermakers were forced to leave at halftime to conduct an unnecessary practice. Landry's teammates missed his breakout performance in the second half, which was the entire reason for the stopover.

Now, if anyone can give us any possible logical explanation to this rule - which led to this most disappointing turn of events last night, we'd love to hear it.

Photo: flickr user jeffbalke