West Virginia hung tough for large stretches of Wednesday’s clash against 10th-ranked Houston at Fertitta Center.
Ultimately, the Cougars’ offensive efficiency and ability to generate stops — particularly in the latter stages of the contest — ruled out in helping the home team claim a 70-54 victory.
“It seemed like every mistake we made defensively, they burned us on them,” first-year WVU head coach Darian DeVries said. “That was a credit to them. They’re a really good team with really good players. We got it down there several times and weren’t able to get us that next big play to get us back to even.”
The Mountaineers (12-4, 3-2) got off to a solid start thanks in large part to Javon Small’s trio of three-pointers within a span of four possessions. The last one gave WVU a 15-12 lead, and the advantage grew to 18-13 moments later when freshman Jonathan Powell made a challenged triple.
But Houston (13-3, 5-0) countered with 11 unanswered points, tying the game at 18 on an L.J. Cryer triple and going in front for good when Emanuel Sharp connected from long range.
J’Wan Roberts gave the Mountaineers problems in and around the paint throughout the night, and his short jumper 6:10 before halftime made it a double-digit margin for the first time as the Cougars led, 31-21.
WVU’s deficit was 36-27 following a Sencire Harris bucket, but Roberts accounted for the final four points of the half to send Houston to the intermission with a 13-point advantage.
“We came into the game playing 1-on-1 on the interior and he made us pay for that,” DeVries said. “We doubled a couple times and he made us pay for that, too. He’s a really good player and he puts you in some tough positions and surrounded with really good pieces on top of that. We were hanging around and had a really good rhythm to the game. Those costly turnovers were a big key.”
Toby Okani and Powell opened the second half with threes on WVU’s first two possessions, and when Harris converted a fast break opportunity on the next one, the Mountaineers were to within five at 40-35.
Although Houston built its advantage back up to 49-36, West Virginia got three threes and 12 points from Amani Hansberry over a matter of 2:38 to pull to within 51-48.
Houston countered with 14 unanswered points to put the game out of reach, starting with a Ja’Vier Francis dunk and later getting a conventional three-point play from Milos Uzan and a Terrance Arceneaux three.
Hansberry accounted for six of WVU’s nine second-half field goals, and nobody else on the Mountaineers made a basket over the final 18 minutes.
“Javon got off to a great start and in the second half, we weren’t able to get him loose quite as much. A couple times, maybe he came off some staggers and things that he had a little bit of a look, but they close so quickly that we couldn’t get him free as much,” DeVries said. “We were able to get Amani a little separated because they were putting two to the ball and Javon. We got some looks there that he was able to knock down to get us back in that game.”
Houston shot 25 for 51 and 11 of 26 on threes.
The Cougars scored 25 points off WVU 12 turnovers, while the Mountaineers managed nine points off seven Cougar turnovers.
“They did a great job capitalizing on our turnovers,” DeVries said. “We didn’t have a lot of them. Twelve is a higher number than we’d like, and the ones we did turnover were a lot of live ball turnovers that they were able to get down in transition. We made some mistakes on some ball screens and went under a few and gave some pretty clean looks there and they capitalized on them and really made us pay.”
Roberts made 10-of-13 shots and led all players with 22 points. Cryer added five of his team’s 11 threes and scored 18, while Sharp added 14.
Hansberry led WVU with 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting. Small scored 13 to go with a game-high eight assists.
Houston has yet to allow more than 57 points in a Big 12 game this season.
