On Wednesday evening in Morgantown, West Virginia, two Big 12 teams clashed in a game with two very different halves.
Darian DeVries and the West Virginia Mountaineers welcomed Kelvin Sampson and the Houston Cougars to WVU Coliseum for the ninth game of the Big 12 regular season. Houston started off strong with nearly 40 first-half points. West Virginia trailed wire-to-wire in the contest but rallied back and cut Houston’s lead to single digits in the second half. Ultimately, the Mountaineers would lose their third straight game in league play.
With that, here are the top three takeaways from Houston’s 63-49 win over the Mountaineers.
The Rally Back
While the final score may not do this game justice for the incredible second-half rally by West Virginia, unfortunately, “almost” doesn’t count in college basketball. The Mountaineers started off horribly against Houston, following up on a sluggish outing from the previous week with another lackluster effort. The team followed up their 19-first half points scored against Kansas State by doing the same thing against Houston. They left for the halftime break down 20 points, 39-19.
That wouldn’t last long, however, as West Virginia came out of the second half hot. They took it to the Cougars for the final 20 minutes, cutting the Houston lead all the way down to four. Late in the second half, Houston woke up and started finding the bottom of the net. The pair of LJ Cryer and Joseph Tugler sealed the deal for Kelvin Sampson’s squad with 29 total points, 10 rebounds, and three assists.
Big Four Battle
Despite the Cougars taking care of business as 9.5-point favorites, the team did not see their usual stars show up. LJ Cryer was the main contributor for the group, but the four-man crew of Cryer, J’Wan Roberts, Milos Uzan, and Emanuel Sharp did not bring their A-game to Morgantown.
The four athletes have averaged 47.7 points, 14.9 rebounds, and 9.6 assists per night through their first 20 games, but on Wednesday, they posted a combined 35 points, 12 rebounds, and eight assists.
As unlikely and inconsistent as it may be, the group looks beatable when teams can force Houston’s top playmakers to feed others instead of scoring themselves. That said, they cruised to their 13th straight win and sit at 9-0 in league play.
Trouble Brewing
It might be time to have a conversation about West Virginia Basketball.
While fans of the Mountaineers deserve to have elevated expectations after their impressive start to the 2024-25 season, it’s safe to say that the team has come back down to Earth in recent weeks. Darian DeVries’ squad has lost their last three outings against Arizona State (3-6), Kansas State (2-6), and No. 6 Houston (9-0) by a combined 35 points.
Against Houston, just about everyone in blue and gold struggled, including Big 12 Player of the Year candidate Javon Small. The former Oklahoma State Cowboy recorded a season-low eight points with three rebounds and three assists. He connected on 3-7 shots from the field, including 2-3 from three-point land.
West Virginia returns to action on Sunday, February 2nd, against Cincinnati at Fifth-Third Arena.
