The Good, Bad and Ugly From No. 2 Houston Cougars' Win Over Rider
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In a quick return home from their first true marquee opponent test, the No. 2 Houston Cougars captured a blowout 91-45 win over the Rider Broncs at Fertitta Center on Thursday, in a collective effort all around from the active roster.
Five Cougars reached double figures, with as many as seven on watch to reach the mark. Once again, it was all led by freshman guard Kingston Flemings, who posted 18 points on 8 of 10 shooting, starting a perfect 6-for-6 at first.
Flemings is now averaging 17.3 points per game, establishing himself among the top-billed freshman class in the Big 12 with forwards AJ Dybantsa of BYU and Koa Peat of Arizona.
There was a sum of things to take away in what is by far the most complete outing for Houston five games into the season, so let's break it all down into the good, bad and ugly.
The Good: Firing on all cylinders
If there was ever a confidence-boosting outing for the Cougars ahead of their trip to the Players' Era tournament in Las Vegas, it certainly showed with multiple pieces clicking all at once to put the game away rather quickly in commanding effort.
This was a completely different picture offensively from the Cougars' first two games of the season, as it wasn't even at the four-minute mark of the first half that they had cracked 40 points. Over four minutes into the second half, they were shooting at over a 60% clip as a team.
At the same time, Houston held Rider to just 30.8% shooting after the Broncs scored 65 points in a blowout loss to Texas just two nights earlier at Moody Center in Austin. The Cougars also finished with a commanding +16 turnover margin off of 23 Broncs turnovers.
Among namely efforts, junior forward Joseph Tugler nearly posted a double-double on 12 points with nine rebounds, while redshirt senior guard Emanuel Sharp recorded his 100th career win at Houston on 15 points and three triples.
That's a lot of winning 💯#ForTheCity x #GoCoogs pic.twitter.com/vgTTEi2scD
— Houston Men's Hoops 🏀 🐾 (@UHCougarMBK) November 21, 2025
In stepping up for freshman guard Isiah Harwell, who was out for the game with an illness, sophomore guard Mercy Miller effectively became the fifth Cougar to reach double-figure scoring with 14 points on 6 of 10 shooting.
On the boards, redshirt fifth year forward Kalifa Sakho racked up seven rebounds in 16 minutes, posting a season-high five games in after he issued the game-sealing block on Sunday against No. 22 Auburn in Birmingham. He's now grabbed 17 boards across his last three games and could be on track to start averaging around five a game.
The Bad: Hardly any
There was not a lot of bad to take away from what was a complete outing across the board, as Houston handled Rider the way a 335th-rated KenPom team was supposed to be handled.
Though it's an opponent of that tier, this is still a healthy matchup for the Cougars to have shown their full offensive potential ahead of another set of marquee matchups.
The Ugly: A good kind of ugly
The only thing that looked ugly from tonight's display was how much Rider experienced Houston leading the nation in playing tough.
For a slow-paced offense coming into this game, this was nearly no match for the Broncs, not even covering the spread of 40.5.
Michael Carrara is a staff writer for Houston Cougars on SI. He attends the University of Houston, where he is a journalism major and a marketing minor. He is also a sports writer and reporter for the Daily Cougar, having covered baseball as an NCBWA member. You can find Michael on all major social media channels, including X on @michaelcoalec.