J’Wan Roberts scored a game- and season-high 22 points as No. 10 Houston extended the nation’s longest home winning streak to 32 games with a 70-54 win against West Virginia on Wednesday.
L.J. Cryer scored 18 points and Emmanuel Sharp added 14 points for Houston (13-3, 5-0 Big 12).
Amani Hansberry led West Virginia with 16 points off the bench, with of his points coming in the second half. Javon Small scored 13 points for the Mountaineers (12-4, 3-2), who have dropped two of three since winning seven in a row.
Roberts dominated in the paint in the first half, hitting 8 of 10 shots and scoring 17 points. Back-to-back hooks, one righty and one lefty, from Roberts put the Cougars up 33-21 and capped a 9-0 Houston run.
After a tightly played opening 10 minutes, Houston’s No. 1 ranked defense kicked in and held the Mountaineers scoreless for more than five minutes. Small finally snapped the Cougars’ rally with a layup courtesy of goaltending. Small leads the Big 12 with 19.8 points per game but was held scoreless in the second half.
On the next Houston possession, the Mountaineers double-teamed Roberts, who kicked it out for a Terrance Arceneaux 3-pointer from the top of the key for a 36-23 Cougars lead with just under four minutes in the first half.
The Cougars hit their first four 3-point attempts and shot 55 percent from beyond the arc in the first half.
Roberts’ lefty floater gave the Cougars their largest lead heading into halftime at 40-27. Houston shot 62 percent from the field in the first half and held WVU scoreless the last 2:23. The Cougars scored 14 points off seven WVU turnovers. Houston had just two first-half turnovers.
Toby Okani opened the second half with a 3-pointer from the wing and the Mountaineers closed to 40-30. A Houston turnover led to a Sencire Harris fast-break bucket where he Euro-stepped his way to a layup that capped an 8-0 Mountaineers run to open the second half.
As WVU went under a ball screen, Cryer hit a 3-pointer and the Cougars went up 46-36 at the 16:34 mark of the second half. He drilled another triple after a Joseph Tugler steal on the next Cougars’ possession alive.
But the visitors got back in the game behind Hansberry, whose 3-pointer cut the Houston lead to 51-48 at the 12:36 mark.
Another Huston run, a 14-0 burst, was punctuated by a Milos Uzan triple and pushed the Cougars’ lead to 65-48 with seven minutes to go and Houston never looked back.
–Field Level Media
