The Good, Bad and Ugly of Houston's Big Road Win at No. 16 BYU

The No. 8 Houston Cougars faced a BYU team that was hungry for a victory at home, and UH successfully weathered the storm in Provo, Utah, for an impressive 77-66 win late Saturday night.

BYU stepped up its physicality and matched Houston in effort after its poor performance against Oklahoma State, but UH’s defense and timely shooting were too much.

Houston improved to 21-2 on the season and 9-1 in the Big 12, while BYU lost its fourth straight game and fell to 17-6 overall and 5-5 in the conference record. Top freshman forward talent AJ Bybantsa still put up a special performance against this Houston defense with a game-high 28 points on 64% shooting. He did miss five free throws.

UH was led by freshman point guard Kingston Flemings for the 14th time this season. Flemings had 19 points, five rebounds, five assists, and only one turnover. Freshman big man Chris Cenac Jr. was great and had one of the best road performances of his young career with 16 points on 7/12 shooting. Senior guard Emanuel Sharp added 14 points, two 3-pointers, and four assists.

Houston shot 48% overall on the road and won the rebounding battle 40-36.

Here’s the good, bad, and ugly.

Good: A Team Coming Together

Houston Cougars forward Chris Cenac Jr. reacts to a made three-point shot during the first half against the BYU Cougars at Marriott Center. | Aaron Baker-Imagn Images

Cenac Jr. had an excellent start to the game in a loud environment and scored the first seven Houston points. He looked comfortable and had a great first half with a team-high 12 points. He found his spots and confidently shot it.

Flemings continued to show his lightning speed to the basket. Graduate center Kalifa Sakho also had some nice slams in the first half.

The defense was on point for the most part in the first half. It is impossible to stop Dybantsa entirely, and Houston has a clear game plan for him. Senior guard Richie Saunders was limited to just four points in the first half.

Junior forward Joseph Tugler became the go-to guy on offense to start the second half. He was in the right spots and did well to stay on the court. When BYU stormed back and the game was tied at 54, Flemings woke up and attacked. He got a nice and-one. Houston’s offensive rebounding came to life and Flemings somehow made another incredible and-one.

The offensive glass wasn’t a factor in the first half. Houston was losing that battle, but when UH needed the additional possessions late, they went to work. Sakho was a big part of that and made a huge second-chance layup. He had seven points and four rebounds. Even though BYU had one more offensive board, Houston had 17 second-chance points compared to 11 for BYU.

Sharp hit a clutch 3-pointer to basically put the game away after Dybantsa made it a five-point game. Almost everyone on Houston had their moments in this one.

Bad: Poor Stretches

BYU was constantly getting off some great looks from 3-point range. Its ball movement was good at times, and the Cougs made some wide-open triples.

Flemings had a poor start and didn’t score until the seven-minute mark of the first half. Houston had a couple of bad turnovers in the second half, but it was only four total.

BYU went on an 11-2 run and took the lead around six minutes into the second half. Wright was a big part of that and nearly scored 20 against UH. Houston was very poor from beyond the arc in the second half and shot 2/8.

Ugly: Physicality and Foul Calls

A couple of jump balls did not go Houston’s way. There was another goal-tending that was missed as well and a screaming Sampson let the referee know. This became even more of a physical game in the second half, so much so that Flemings and Harwell came up limping.

The free-throw disparity was large, as it typically is in Houston games. BYU had 13 more attempts, but missed 12 of them. BYU was 16/28 (57%) from the line. Compare that to Houston, who took full advantage of their 15 total attempts and made 12 of them.

Up next, Houston will stay in Utah to take on the Utes on Tuesday night.