Coogs win at West Virginia, 63-49

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POSTED: January 30, 2025 -- 4:40 p.m. CT

MORGANTOWN, WV -- WVU Coliseum

The Houston Cougars defeated the West Virginia Mountaineers, 63-49, Wednesday evening, on the road to sweep the 2 regular season meetings between the teams. With the win, Houston improves to 17-3 overall and 9-0 in the Big 12 Conference.

The win is Houston's 18th-consecutive Big 12 regular season victory which is the 2nd-longest Big 12 winning streak in league history. Houston has also won 13 straight games this season.

Houston scored the first 8 points of the game as LJ Cryer sank 2 three-pointers after sophomore big man JoJo Tugler scored the first points of the game with an offensive rebound tip-in. The Mountaineers (13-7, 4-5) trimmed Houston's lead to six (13-7); but, Houston answered with a 9-0 run to lead 22-7 with 10:48 remaining in the opening half.

WVU managed to get within 11 (24-13); however, Houston closed out the final 7 minutes outscoring WVU 15-6 to lead 39-19 at halftime.

Houston made 15 of 30 field goal attempts (50.0 fg%) including 6 for 13 three-point shots (46.2 3pt%) in the first 20 minutes. West Virginia shot 36.4 fg% (8 for 22) including 20.0 3pt% (2 for 10) from three-. The Mountaineers also committed 8 turnovers.

"We kept the crowd out of it (in the first half)," Kelvin Sampson, Houston Head Coach said during the postgame press conference. "There was no reason for them to believe the first 20 minutes because we played so well."

The first 5 minutes of the second half was all Mountaineers. WVU disrupted Houston's offense with aggressive on-the-ball defense which resulted in 3 Houston turnovers in three minutes. WVU scored the first 11 points in the half to cut Houston's lead to 39-30.

Houston continued to struggle against WVU's defense and added 6 more turnovers in the second half for a total of 9 of Houston's season-high 14 turnovers. Houston came into the game averaging 8.6 turnovers per game.

"They were just taking it from us," Coach Sampson said after the game. "They were clean steals. The (senior guard Mylik) Wilson kid and (junior guard Milos) Uzan, I think we're number one in the nation in fewest turnovers per game. Like, 8.6 or something like that. How many did we have tonight? We had 14. You know what, West Virginia deserves a lot of credit for that."

The Mountaineers trimmed Houston's lead to five on two occasions (47-42 and 49-44); but, LJ Cryer converted a 3 point play to begin an 8-2 Houston run. After Cryer's bucket, Cryer dished to Tugler for a slam dunk. Then, Milos Uzan, Houston's starting point guard, drained a three-pointer to increase Houston's lead to 57-46 with 4:31 to go in the game.

Houston held West Virginia to just 3 points the rest of the game to secure win number 17 this season.

LJ Cryer scored a game-high 17 points and added 3 rebounds and 3 assists. JoJo Tugler was next with 12 points and 7 rebounds. Milos Uzan finished the game with 10 points.

Houston out-rebounded West Virginia 34-19 and outscored WVU 16-3 in second chance points.

"It's a win. I'm proud of our kids for coming back," Coach Sampson remarked. "I think they cut it to five and had a chance to cut it to three. They had someone at the free throw line, and he missed the one-and-one. From there, we got in the fight. They were not in the fight the first half and we were not in the fight for the first seven or eight minutes of the second half."

WVU Head Coach Darian DeVries said, "Second half, I thought offensively we did enough, even defensively until late. We just ran out of gas. I thought we did enough. It was just that first half was too much."

Note: LJ Cryer has averaged 20 points in six career games against the Mountaineers.

Next: Houston's next game is scheduled for Saturday, February 1, vs Texas Tech. Tip is set for 5 pm CT on ESPN2.

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