WVU tasked with trying to maintain high level of offensive execution against defensive-minded Houston
Fresh off its most marquee win to date this season, West Virginia hits the road for Tuesday’s 8:30 p.m. tilt with No. 7 Houston inside the Fertitta Center, which will air on FS1.
It’s the third ranked foe among the first four Big 12 Conference games for WVU, which opened league play with a 21-point loss at unbeaten Iowa State and most recently defeated Kansas in Morgantown last Saturday, 86-75.
“It’s what you want to be a part of,” first-year Mountaineer head coach Ross Hodge said. “We talked about it the other night — the NBA, the Euro League and the Big 12. We have four teams ranked in the top [11] at the moment and a couple of them on the cusp. Whether we won or lost the [Kansas] game, you have to be able to sit on that process very quickly and flip to tomorrow. You look at what you didn’t do well and what you did do well, and start talking about Houston. Our players understand that and they’re excited about it. That’s what you kind of sign up for when you play in the best collegiate basketball league in the country.”
Against the Jayhawks, WVU (11-5, 2-1) continued to excel at Hope Coliseum, improving to 11-0 in Morgantown this season and wrapping up a 2-0 week that began with a 62-60 victory over Cincinnati last Tuesday.
The Mountaineers mustered their fourth highest-scoring output of the season and third highest regulation total against KU, pouring in 47 points after halftime and utilizing a 16-0 run over a 7-minute stretch to overcome an eight-point second-half deficit.
Offensive execution was a pivotal part of the success and it was on display throughout much of the matchup.
“Their offensive execution was a hell of a lot better than our defensive execution,” Kansas head coach Bill Self said. “That, to me, is the sign of a coach. You teach them how to play, everybody does, but if you can steal some points every now and then that really doesn’t come from having to grind every possession, that’s a positive. They did a good job of that and we didn’t do a good job of executing defensively on how to guard those three actions like we should’ve.”
The Mountaineers’ ability to cash in on high percentage shots out of timeouts was further sign of progress from a team that garnered its first Quad 1 victory this season.
“They have good IQs,” Hodge said. “You can draw things up that maybe you haven’t ran before, even in practice. The play [Brenen Lorient] got the dunk on in the first half, we haven’t ran that play in practice. It’s not an easy environment. In timeouts, you get a lot of voices from defense to offense, so be able to take that from the board and then execute it speaks to the level of their maturity and IQs.”
Honor Huff led WVU with 23 points, while Brenen Lorient followed with 18. Treysen Eaglestaff scored 12 and Harlan Obioha had 11 with 10 rebounds, six of which came on the offensive end. That meant every WVU starter registered double-figure scoring with the exception of point guard Jasper Floyd, who shot 4 for 4 and scored nine over 20 minutes, overcoming early foul trouble to play a strong second half.
“He was plus-19 and he’s our leader and captain,” Huff said of Floyd. “When he’s able to assert dominance on the offensive end, it opens up everything for all of us, including me.”
Maintaining that balance and duplicating the offensive success will certainly be a stern challenge against Houston, one of the top defensive and rebounding teams on a seemingly annual basis under veteran head coach Kelvin Sampson.
The Cougars (15-1, 3-0) enter winners of nine straight and the defending national runner-up is 37-4 within the Big 12 since joining the league ahead of the 2023-24 campaign.
A trio of guards — Emanuel Sharp (16.1), Kingston Flemings (15.7) and Milos Uzan (10.9) are the Cougars’ top scorers. Flemings, a 6-foot-4 freshman, has a field-goal percentage just south of 53 and has totaled 52 points over his first three Big 12 games.
Jan 10, 2026; Waco, Texas, USA; The Houston Cougars bench celebrates after a play against the Baylor Bears during the second half at Paul and Alejandra Foster Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Chris Jones-Imagn Images
Freshman Chris Cenac Jr. stands 6-11 and leads the team with 7.4 rebounds on average, followed by Joseph Tugler at 5.8.
For all of its scoring prowess on the perimeter, Houston’s physicality and ability to disrupt the opposition’s rhythm is a constant. Surrendering 60 points on average, Houston is the only conference team allowing fewer points than WVU, which is second at 62.3.
Opponents are shooting 39.1 percent against UH and 29.7 percent on three-pointers, marks that have hardly increased in Big 12 play. The Cougars have allowed 180 points over three league games on 40.4 percent shooting overall and 32.8 from long distance. In Saturday’s 22-point win at Baylor, the Cougars held the Bears to 15 field goals and eight inside the arc, while dominating the second half to pull away.
“It’s not something you do every day beating a ranked team, but we want to turn right around and get ready for this next game,” Obioha said. “We want to take this game at Houston, so that’s our worry right now. That’s our next objective and the thing we have to be best at next.”
