Houston Cougars Freshman Turns in Best Performance of the Season vs. Jackson State
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The Houston Cougars continue to roll through the non-conference portion of their schedule, as they pick up their ninth win of the season and improve their record to 9-1 after the first 10 games for the 2025-26 season.
The Coogs cruised to their ninth victory of the year after taking care of business against the Jackson State Tigers 80-38 on Wednesday night in the Cougars' first game back in the Fertitta Center after a few games away.
Houston was led by a big scoring output from its veteran guard Emanuel Sharp, who was the Coogs' leading scorer on the night, finishing with 23 points while shooting 8 of 11 from the field and five of eight from three-point range. While the Coogs were aided by Sharp, one of their young, exciting players put together his best game in a Houston uniform.
Isiah Harwell puts it together on Wednesday Night
While the Cougars have already seen big performances from some of their other talented freshmen, with the likes of guard Kingston Flemings becoming one of the top scorers on the Coogs very early on in his career and forward Chris Cenac Jr., who has consistently gotten better, the one other freshman in guard Isiah Harwell had not yet made an impact on the season, that changed against Jackson State.
Against the Tigers on Wednesday night, Harwell was a spark plug for Houston off the bench, as the guard finished the ballgame as the team's second leading scorer with 20 points on 8 of 14 shooting, four of nine from behind the three-point line, along with four rebounds, one assist, and one rebound in 24 minutes.
After the career day in Harwell's short collegiate career, Kelvin Sampson was complimentary in the postgame press conference, remarking on Harwell's steady progress after being out with injury throughout the offseason and into the preseason.
"I had not seen him play since the summer before his junior year in high school, I didn't see him play last year, he tore his ACL, and he was out for a long time," Sampson said. "So my deal is keeping these kids' spirits up, making sure they understand where they are. Isiah is making steady progress, but he's important to this team. What he did tonight was probably more important than anything. This was his best performance...we need him to be Isiah."
Up until Harwell's performance on Wednesday, his best scoring output was just nine points coming in the Cougars' victory over Oakland, where the freshman shot three of eight in his field goal attempts, making just one of his four attempts from beyond the arc, with two rebounds, an assist, and a rebound.
Harwell also got the chance to comment on his road to recovery from the torn ACL postgame, going into detail about how the Cougars program as a whole has rallied behind him and helped him in his recovery process and into the season.
"I called coach Sampson and K.C. Beard, and we had talks, and they still wanted me after I tore my ACL, and I thought that was a big thing for me, so I definitely took that to heart," Harwell said. "And when I committed here, they never gave up on me, never gave up confidence in me, coach always put confidence in me, but I think that's part of the program, that's why I came here, so I really don't take any credit for it, it was all the team that put me in this position."
