Milos Uzan’s 17-point burst powered No. 7 Houston to a 77-48 demolition of West Virginia, stretching the Cougars’ winning streak to 10 and stamping them as the team to beat in a brutal Big 12 race.
Instant domination: Cougars flip turnovers into 17 points, bury Mountaineers by halftime
Houston’s game plan was simple and savage: pressure, force mistakes, convert in transition. West Virginia opened with back-to-back giveaways, triggering a 10-2 burst capped by a Chris Cenac Jr. dunk that set the tone. The Mountaineers finished with 15 turnovers; the Cougars turned those into 17 points while committing only seven themselves, a 10-possession swing that effectively ended the contest before the first media timeout.
The numbers look worse for West Virginia the deeper you dig. They shot 26 percent in the opening half (6-of-23) and didn’t crack double digits until DJ Thomas drilled his second triple with 3:24 left in the half. By then Houston had already ripped off a 15-2 start and a later 13-0 salvo—featuring threes from Uzan, Cenac and Emanuel Sharp—to balloon the lead to 28-5.
Uzan’s 17-piece fuels balanced attack as five Cougars reach double digits
Milos Uzan did his damage efficiently: 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting, 3-of-5 from deep, plus four assists and zero turnovers. The junior guard’s pull-up three at the 5:05 mark of the first half pushed the advantage to 23 and forced WVU into a timeout that felt more like a white flag.
Sharp added 13 points on 4-of-7 from distance, Joseph Tugler posted 10-6-4 steals, and freshman Kingston Flemings flirted with a triple-double: 10 points, seven assists, five rebounds. Chris Cenac Jr. anchored the paint with seven points and 10 boards, out-working a Mountaineers front line that entered averaging 38 rebounds per game yet was out-rebounded 44-30.
West Virginia’s mini-runs crushed inside four minutes every time
Every time Trayce Eaglestaff or Honor Huff heated up—Huff hit back-to-back threes to trim a 38-18 gap to 38-27 with 16:21 left—Houston answered with kill-shots. Sharp’s corner three ignited an 8-0 burst; later, a 17-0 avalanche turned a 48-34 edge into a 65-34 laugher when Isiah Harwell splashed a corner triple at the 7:25 mark. The 29-point margin matched the largest of the night.
What it means for the Big 12 arms race
Houston is now 4-0 in league play, joining Iowa State and Kansas at the top of the standings ESPN. Their average margin in those four games: 19.5 points. KenPom’s adjusted efficiency margin has Kelvin Sampson’s group inside the top five nationally on both ends, a terrifying combo for a conference that sent eight teams to last year’s NCAA tournament.
West Virginia, meanwhile, drops to 2-2 and 10-6 overall. The Mountaineers’ turnover rate (21.8%) now ranks 13th in the 14-team Big 12, per official conference stats, and their 48-point output was a season low. Coach Darian DeVries has three days to fix ball-security before hosting Kansas on Saturday; give it away 15 more times and the Jayhawks will deliver an even harsher lesson.
Fan angle: Houston’s depth is becoming unfair
Sampson went 10-deep before the under-12 timeout of the second half, and no reserve logged fewer than eight minutes. The Cougars have now won 31 consecutive home games dating to 2022, and the student section serenaded West Virginia with “Just like football!”—a nod to the Cougars’ 41-3 gridiron rout in October. The building is a fortress, the roster is loaded, and the schedule offers three of the next four at home. The real debate in AAC-to-Big 12 chat rooms isn’t whether Houston wins the league; it’s whether anyone can push them past March 1.
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