No. 10 Houston basketball found a way on the road in a tough 79-70 win over the TCU Horned Frogs in Fort Worth on Wednesday night.
Houston basketball improved to 18-2 overall and 6-1 in the Big 12, while TCU fell to 13-8 and 3-5 in the conference.
This was not an easy game for the Cougars, going up against a TCU team that nearly won games against Michigan, Kansas, and BYU. The Horned Frogs entered with a winning record against top 10 teams at home, but Houston overcame some difficulties to get back to winning ways.
Here are two takeaways from this Big 12 road fight.
Takeaway #1: Fought through adversity
Houston basketball did not play great during stretches, and some of that had to do with the fouling situation. Junior forward Joseph Tugler has struggled with fouling and staying on the court in the past, and that was a big issue in this one. Tugler picked up four total fouls, and two of them were early in the first half. That kept him out for a long time, and he only played 10 total minutes as a starter.
The result of that was that Houston’s defense struggled at times. Tugler was not able to be as physical as he would like in the paint, and TCU took advantage of that at the rim. Besides him, senior center Kalifa Sakho also got four fouls off the bench, further limiting the Cougars’ front court.
Additionally, senior guard Emanuel Sharp, who put up 23 points, came away with five fouls and was ejected for the last couple of minutes. Ultimately, Houston was in control at that point, but the personnel situation could’ve gotten more complicated.
TCU made this a close game in the second half, thanks to the Cougars going ice cold on offense. Houston had a difficult time even getting past the Horned Frog defenders into the paint. UH shot just 29% from the field in the second half and were 3/11 from three. Compare that to the first half where Houston was 62% overall and 50% from beyond the arc, but struggled with eight turnovers.
A big reason why Houston won was because of the great free throw shooting. Known as a previous weakness for the Coogs, Houston went 22/24 at the line and took advantage.
Takeaway #2: Freshmen show their class
Houston basketball was saved on offense by freshman point guard Kingston Flemings. He once again was the team’s leading scorer with 27 points on 8/16 shooting. He added five rebounds and five assists. While he had four turnovers in the first half, Flemings cleaned that up in the second half with 0.
A member of this week’s Big 12 Starting Five, Flemings poured in 17 points in the second half, while the next leading scorer in that period in Sharp only put up seven.
Besides Flemings who is just standing out nationally, freshman stretch big Chris Cenac Jr. had one of the best defensive games of his young career. Cenac Jr. corralled a career high 14 rebounds, the main reason why Houston won the battle on the boards. It’s surprisingly been an issue at times, with the Cougars not dominating on the boards, but the young big made sure they got it done. He showed his physical presence under the basket.
Up Next: vs Cincinnati, Jan. 31 at 11 a.m.