No. 1 Houston Basketball Crushes Oakland at Home

The new no. 1 team in the country showed why they belong at the top. Houston Cougars basketball dominated over Oakland in a 78-45 win at Fertitta Center Wednesday night to improve to 3-0 on the early season. This was the best the Cougars have looked so far.

Freshman point guard Kingston Flemings continues to impress as he scored a team-high 19 points on 8/12 shooting. Flemings in total threw down three dunks. Senior guard Emanuel Sharp also put up 19 points and he was on fire from the 3-point line, going 5/9 from beyond the arc.

Houston had a typical rebounding night, as they won the battle on the boards over Oakland 46-32. The Golden Grizzlies only shot 31% from the field.

Houston vs Oakland Recap

Freshman forward/center Chris Cenac Jr. hit a jumper for the first points of the game. He had a great night with 11 points on 5/11 shooting overall.

Houston was up 8-0 early. Senior point guard Milos Uzan hit a three on a nice cross court pass from Flemings. That was followed up by a deep one from Sharp.

The Cougars greatly improved in ball security and only turned it over six times. Flemings was successful as a facilitator and got everyone involved.

Senior Kalifa Sakho had a nice put back dunk and Cougars went up 21-8. Sharp was hot from the 3-point line and knocked in his first three attempts. Cenac Jr. came through with a fierce block as well.

Houston led 39-17 at the half where Flemings and Sharp each had 11 points. Oakland did not make single 3-pointer and shot just 6/25 overall. Sophomore guard Mercy Miller chipped in with seven points off the bench as well.

The second half was more of the same as the Cougars further increased their dominant lead. Cenac Jr. took control of the paint while Flemings and Sharp led the offensive charge. Flemings had an impressive sequence where he ran past all nine other players on the court for a driving layup at the rim.

Freshman guard Isiah Harwell joined in on the action with a fast-break alley-pop dunk and made a 3-point attempt after he couldn’t play on Saturday recovering from a minor injury.

Houston led by 36 with nine minutes to go, making this game a true rout.

While junior forward Joseph Tugler was in foul trouble in the first half, he had a nice burst to the rim and played really well in the second half. Tugler had four impressive blocks.

The Cougars eventually grew that advantage to a very impressive 40-point lead at 76-36 with just over three minutes to go as the starters sat down.

Next Up:

Houston improves to 3-0 after this great win. The Cougars' next game is the Battleground 2k25 against no. 22 Auburn at Birmingham, Alabama on Sunday at 2 p.m. This is a nationally televised game on ESPN and the first true test for UH. Auburn is coming off a 93-62 home win over Wofford.