No. 14 Houston holds down Oklahoma State in Big 12 opener

Field Level Media|published: Mon 30th December, 22:37 2024

NCAA Basketball: Houston at Oklahoma State

Dec 30, 2024; Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys guard Bryce Thompson (1) drives to the basket during the first half against the Houston Cougars at Gallagher-Iba Arena. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images

J'Wan Roberts scored a season-high 20 points and recorded his first double-double of the campaign as No. 14 Houston claimed a 60-47 win over Oklahoma State in the Big 12 opener for both on Monday in Stillwater, Okla.

Roberts corralled 11 rebounds to lead the Cougars (9-3, 1-0 Big 12) to their fifth consecutive victory. He shot 9 of 13 from the floor and added a pair of free throws for Houston, which seized control with a 17-1 run that closed the first half and yielded a 28-18 lead at the intermission.

Houston's L.J. Cryer tallied 18 points and four 3-pointers while Milos Uzan posted 12 points, six rebounds and four assists. That duo stroked consecutive 3-pointers early in the second half and Cryer added a jumper to extend the Houston lead to 38-23. The Cowboys (8-4, 0-1) failed to cut the deficit to single digits for the rest of the game and trailed by as many as 22.

Brandon Newman scored 12 points for Oklahoma State and Robert Jennings had 10. Machelus Avery, the Cowboys' leading scorer on the season, scored just five points on 2-for-8 shooting, and Oklahoma State wound up at 25.9 percent from the floor.

The Cowboys led 6-4 at the first media timeout, the Cougars' first deficit following four consecutive wire-to-wire wins. Oklahoma State parlayed a 9-0 run into a 17-11 lead when Patrick Suemnick converted a second-chance opportunity at the 10:24 mark of the first half.

That marked the final field goal of the half for the Cowboys. Houston turned an 11-0 run, capped by a Cryer trey, into a 22-17 lead. Abou Ousmane interrupted that rally with a free throw at the 4:38 mark, but the Cougars followed with the final six points of the half to secure a double-digit halftime lead.

Roberts scored six points during the 17-1 surge while Uzan contributed a pullup jumper plus a driving left-handed layup. The Cowboys missed their final 10 shot attempts of the half, shot 6-for-27 (22.2 percent) prior to the intermission and committed eight turnovers during the 10-plus minute stretch without a field goal.

Oklahoma State had nine of its 14 turnovers by the break.

--Field Level Media