The Good, Bad and Ugly of No. 3 Houston Cougars Road Win at Utah
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The No. 3 Houston Cougars defeated the Utah Utes 66-52 at Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Tuesday night in what was a comfortable road win for the most part.
Houston faced the worst team in the Big 12 and had multiple leads of close to 20 points in the second half.
Houston improved to 22-2 and 10-1 in the Big 12, while Utah continues to struggle with a 9-15 overall mark and 1-10 record in the conference. The Cougars went 2-0 in the Utah road trip and will finally head back home to Houston.
Here’s the good, bad, and ugly.
Good: Sharp’s Night
Senior guard Emanuel Sharp officially led the charge in this game, and it was his best performance of the season. Sharp put up a game- and season-high 27 points on 53% shooting. He’s always been a great 3-pointer, but Sharp was on another level of hot from beyond the arc in this one.
The 21-year-old made a whopping eight 3-pointers, which made Sharp the all-time leading 3-point shooter in school history with 277 career makes.
He was expected to own this record by the end of the season, and just passed Marcus Sasser’s 276 career makes after his electrifying performance from beyond the arc. Eight out of his nine made shots were 3-pointers. Houston had nine 3-pointers total in this game.
Sharp went on a stretch of four consecutive 3-point makes, including some from way beyond the NBA line as well. Houston also had six blocks total in this game.
Bad: Uncharacteristic Issues
Freshman point guard Kingston Flemings had been the leading scorer for Houston entering this game. He was going against the worst team in the Big 12 that struggles in defense, and it was expected to be another good outing for him.
It ended up being arguably the worst game of his Houston career thus far with a total of four points on 2/9 shooting in 29 minutes. Flemings did add four rebounds and assists; however, he had 0 points in the first half on 0/2 shooting.
Coach Kelvin Sampson has had to get on him for his defense, and that was the case in this as well. After an incredible stretch to begin Flemings’ career, a bad game was going to happen sooner or later. He was able to drain a midrange shot at the end to boost his confidence. Flemings was clearly frustrated with his shots not falling.
Houston did not have the best first half, and only led by nine points at 34-25. Utes junior forward Keanu Dawes had a monster poster dunk over junior forward Joseph Tugler in this one. Utah was plus 12 in points in the paint in the first half and were equal in rebounding with Houston.
Ugly: Shooting Outside of Sharp
Utah ended up shooting better than Houston from the field at 44% overall compared to 43% for the Cougars. Houston has been a good free-throw shooting team for a change, but were just 5/10 in this game.
This game was ugly in shooting from both teams, as everyone not named Sharp went 3/30 from 3-point range total.
Houston had 11 threes total. Sharp made eight of them. Meanwhile, Utah was terrible from beyond the arc, going just 2/17 (12%).
Nobody scored in double digits besides Sharp. Tugler and senior point guard Milos Uzan each had nine points.
Up next, Houston will be back home taking on the Kansas State Wildcats on Saturday at 3 p.m.
Maanav Gupta is a staff writer for Houston Cougars on SI. He graduated from the University of Houston in the summer of 2025 with his bachelor’s in journalism and a minor in Spanish. Gupta spent three years at the student newspaper, The Daily Cougar, and also covered the 2025 Final Four and National Championship as Houston beat writer for College Basketball Review. He also has his own YouTube channel, Maanav’s Sports Talk, where he has interviewed professional athletes and broadcasters like Jim Nantz, Jose Altuve, J.J. Watt, Rich Eisen, and Alperen Sengun. Gupta was also a contributor to the Houston athletic program as a student. You can find Gupta on X, Instagram and TikTok @MGSportsTalk.