Houston Basketball Surges Late In Win Over West Virginia: 3 Takeaways

Houston basketball won their ninth game in a row, a 16 point win over the West Virginia Mountaineers Wednesday night at the Fertitta Center.

In all nine of these wins, Houston held their opponent to under 60 points. This was a tough battle and UH’s first quadrant one win of the season so far. The Cougars were able to finish the game and take over in the second half vs a higher level of competition where they shot 49% from the field and 42% from three. Houston has won all five of their Big 12 games to start conference play. 

“They’ve got great balance, they’re good on both ends of the floor, no real weaknesses to their team, they’re deep, they’re a championship level team,” West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries. 

While Houston shot 62% from the field and 55% from three in the first half and held a 13 point lead at 40-27, West Virginia stormed back and brought the lead just down to three with over 12 minutes to go. Sophomore forward Amani Hansberry brought a spark off the bench for the Mountaineers and went on a personal 7-0 run, bringing the score to 51-48. 

Houston responded with a crucial 14-0 run that gave them a 17 point lead with just seven minutes left. The Cougars completely took control with a second chance tip-in dunk by senior forward Ja’Vier Francis along with critical buckets from junior point guard Milos Uzan such as a driving layup off a turnover and a 3-pointer to cap off the run. 

“Milos has figured out how to run the offense without doing too much and he does it the way I want it done which is even more important,” head coach Kelvin Sampson said. 

Takeaway #1: J’Wan Roberts big performance 

The graduate forward had a season high 22 points, 17 of those scored in the first half that gave Houston a double digit lead at halftime. Roberts was dominant in the paint and gave the Mountaineers trouble early in their defensive gameplan of playing one-on-one. Houston went on a dominant 20-3 run to open up a 12 point lead thanks to Roberts’ hook shot with just under five minutes to go in the first half. 

When WVU started focusing on Roberts, the US Virgin Islands native had the ability to recognize it and make the right reads. 

Cryer mentioned postgame about when they double Roberts, they can get it out to shooters around him. 

Takeaway #2: LJ Cryer’s second half

When West Virginia went on a quick 8-0 run to start the second half, Kelvin Sampson called a quick timeout. The message: Get the ball to LJ more. 

Houston did exactly that as Cryer drilled three straight 3-pointers immediately after. 12 of his 18 points were in the second half. 

“It allowed us to not have to wear J’Wan down,” Sampson said. 

Takeaway #3: Commendable effort from the Mountaineers

Houston basketball has hardly trailed at Fertitta Center during their 32 game home win streak, but West Virginia got out to a great start in a hostile road environment up 18-13 seven minutes in. It was three straight 3-pointers from the Big 12’s leading scorer Javon Small that created a 12-3 run. Small started 3/4 from the field, but the Cougars stuck to their game plan and forced Small to go 1/7 from the field with 0 points the rest of the way. 

In the second half, the Mountaineers put together another strong effort coming out of the break with a 12-2 run to cut the lead down to three before the Cougars took over. 

Devries mentioned postgame how the points off turnovers really hurt WVU. The Cougars got 25 points off of 12 turnovers compared to just nine points off of seven turnovers for West Virginia. 

“Every mistake we made defensively, they burned us on them,” DeVries said. 

The Mountaineers shot 44% from the field overall and 41% from three in a solid performance. 

Up next for Houston (13-3, 5-0): at UCF – Jan. 18 at 11 a.m. CST

Up next for West Virginia (12-4, 3-2): vs. Iowa State – Jan. 18 at 4 p.m. CST