Houston extends nation’s longest home hitting streak to 32 versus WVU

10th-ranked Houston extended its nation’s best home hitting streak to 32 games with tonight’s 70-54 victory over West Virginia at the Fertitta Center in Houston, Texas.

The Cougars got a season-high 22 points from J’Wan Roberts and 18 from LJ Cryer to improve to 13-3 overall and 5-0 in Big 12 play.

“(Roberts) makes it difficult because we doubled him once in the first half and they hit a three, but our plan for that was to play him one-on-one and he made us pay for it,” coach West Virginia. Darian DeVries said afterwards. “He puts you in a really tough spot because he’s such a good passer.”

Roberts made 10 of his 13 field goal attempts, while Cryer connected on half of his 10 three-point field goal attempts.

West Virginia, on the tail end of a two-game road trip that included a Sunday afternoon win at Colorado, falls to 12-4 and 3-2.

Amani Hansberry came off the bench for 16 points, including 12 straight during a second-half stretch, while Javon little one contributed 13.

Small scored nine straight points in the first half and West Virginia trailed by three points with 10 minutes left. But the Cougars used a 9-0 spurt to push their lead to 12 and led 40-27 at halftime.

West Virginia scored eight straight to start the second half and cut the deficit to three, 51-48, with 12:36 left when it went ice cold.

“In the second half, we came out a lot more aggressive and did some better things defensively, which led to some better offense as well,” DeVries said. “Then Amani gave us a spark in the second half, but every time we got back in there it seemed like it was a big turnover on our part that didn’t give us a shot to even get a ball up the rim.”

Houston held the Mountaineers scoreless for a six-minute stretch and the Cougars responded with a 14-0 run to put the game away.

Houston’s biggest lead was 16 with 1:10 left.

The Cougars made 11 of 26 from behind the three-point arc and turned West Virginia’s 12 turnovers into 25 points. Houston also outscored West Virginia 24 to 16 in the paint and outscored the Mountaineers 30 to 23.

West Virginia shot 44.2% from the floor, going 19 of 43, while Houston shot 49%, making 25 of its 51 field goal attempts.

Emanuel Sharp contributed 14 points for the Cougars.

Tonight’s loss was West Virginia’s first against a nationally ranked team after three wins.


“I thought the way the game played out, we did a lot of really good things at times, and we knew going into it that turnovers were going to be the biggest key,” DeVries said. “We only had 12 turnovers, which is a few more than you would think, but all of them seemed to result in points.


“They were really effective at taking advantage of any time we gave them a loose ball and going down and converting when our defense wasn’t allowed to get set,” DeVries said.


The Mountaineers resume one of the tough parts of their schedule with a home game on Saturday against second-ranked Iowa State.


West Virginia University will celebrate Jerry West’s life and legacy during the game with video tributes throughout and a memorial service on the field at halftime with many of his family members on hand.


West died in Los Angeles last June 12.


The game has already been announced as sold out.