Houston Basketball Wins At Oklahoma State: 3 Takeaways

#14 Houston basketball won their Big 12 conference opener on the road in impressive fashion after a slow start with tight defense and an offense that went to work.

This was the 10th straight season where Houston won their conference opener. The Cougars improved their win streak to five in a row and six of their last seven. Graduate guard LJ Cryer had 18 points for Houston while shooting 4/8 from three along with a huge game for J’Wan Roberts. Junior point guard Milos Uzan also had 12 points, six rebounds and four assists.

The Cougars trailed early in the first half for the first time in five games, but then completely took over for the rest of the period for a 10 point halftime lead. Roberts and Cryer continued to extend the lead in the second half as it eventually reached 22, at 58-36 which was the largest of the game.  

“The guy I was most proud of tonight was Uzan. He grew the most from those losses,” Kelvin Sampson said.

#1: J’Wan Roberts makes his mark

The graduate power forward had his best game of the season with 20 points and 11 rebounds. This was Houston basketball’s first double double of the year to make a statement in the first Big 12 game. Roberts proves he’s ready to make his impact in conference play and dominated the Cowboys in the paint with his physicality and experience. This was Robert’s 6th double double of his career and Houston is 5-1 in those games. 

“I think we kept our composure pretty good,” Roberts said.

#2: Cougars defense wakes up 

After the Cowboys jumped out to an early 18-11 lead halfway through the first half, Houston went on an incredible 17-1 run for the 28-18 halftime lead. OSU missed all 10 of their field goal attempts and also had eight turnovers during that span of 10 minutes. Houston limited Oklahoma State to just 26% from the field overall, as well as 21% from three. 

Even though UH got outrebounded in all categories, the Cougars still forced 14 turnovers that resulted in 16 points as well as five blocked shots. Houston needed this defensive performance as they only shot 42% from the field themselves. 

“The thing we did good was takeaway their transition,” Sampson said.

#3: Cowboys’ offense struggled

Oklahoma State came in with a successful offense that averaged close to 80 per game, however did not come anywhere close to that as Houston held them to under 50. The starting five for the Cowboys greatly struggled as they shot a combined 4/24 (17%). Oklahoma State could only manage 18 points in the first half on 22% shooting and were remarkably held without a field goal for the final 10 minutes of that half. Brandon Newman led the way off the bench with 12 points. 

“They missed some layups,” Sampson said.

Up next for Houston (9-3, 1-0): vs. BYU (10-2, 1-0) – Jan.4 at 1 p.m.

Up next for Oklahoma State (8-4, 0-1): at West Virginia (10-2, 1-0) – Jan.4 at 11 a.m.