The Good, Bad and Ugly of No. 7 Houston Cougars’ Dominant Win over Baylor
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The No. 7 Houston Cougars throttled the Baylor Bears 77-55 Saturday afternoon at Foster Pavilion to improve to 15-1 on the season.
Houston has begun Big 12 conference play with a 3-0 record and continues its record-setting road winning streak going back to last season to 16 games.
Houston has won four straight games against Baylor and has won in Waco in each of the past three seasons. The Cougars shot 39% from the field, but were excellent in a number of areas to completely take over. Here’s the good, bad, and ugly from this clinical win.
Good: 2nd Half Dominance The Houston Way
It was looking like this might be a competitive road game for Houston, but the Cougars completely broke this open in the second half. However, the momentum began to change early in the first half as well. Houston went on an incredible 23-3 run to go up 12 at 29-17 with 6:34 to go in the first half.
It was just a seven-point game at the half. That completely changed in the next 20 minutes. Houston came out of the gate rolling with another 13-4 run. Houston was up 17 at this point, and they looked in complete control. It was that kind of game the rest of the way. UH won the second half 44-29 in one of their best Big 12 performances that we have seen on the road.
Looking at the shooting, you wouldn’t be able to tell. Both Baylor and Houston shot similarly overall from the field in the second half. It was the number of shots that made the difference. The Cougars’ defense did not allow players to get off much of anything.
Baylor attempted 18 shots compared to 38 for Houston. UH also made double the amount of 3-pointers on 17 attempts compared to just seven for the Bears.
Houston’s formula to win games typically relies on two things: turnovers and second-chance points. That is something they have done well for years under Head Coach Kelvin Sampson. They were dominant in the second half in those two categories.
When you look at those statistics for the whole game, it is drastically in favor of Houston. The Cougars got 31 points off turnovers compared to just four points for Baylor.
UH forced 16 turnovers compared to just 5 for BU. Houston has been known to be an elite rebounding program, but they have been getting beaten in that category for more than a few games this season. It was typical Houston in this one, going plus 11 on the boards overall and 23-10 on the offensive glass. The Cougars cashed in with 19 second-chance points compared to 10 for Baylor.
The bench also played a role in this blowout. Freshman guard Isiah Harwell had his best performance on the road with 12 points. Houston had five players scoring double-digit points. Senior guard Emanuel Sharp was the leading scorer with 17 points, while junior forward Joseph Tugler added another double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Freshman forward Chris Cenac Jr. also put up 11 points. Freshman point guard Kingston Flemings also contributed 10. It’s a good sign they were able to put up nearly 80 points, even without Flemings scoring a lot.
Bad: Shooting
There was really not a lot of bad in this game for Houston, but their shooting was not particularly good, considering just how many shots they were able to get off thanks to all their offensive rebounds. All their chances to make shots were the reason they won this game.
Houston was only 8/13 (62 percent) from the free-throw line. Additionally, the Cougars were 11/39 (28 percent) from beyond the arc. At the end of the day, UH doesn’t win pretty, but it isn’t a beauty contest as Sampson likes to say.
Ugly: Poor Start
It did not look good early for the Cougars as they quickly went down 14-6 just five minutes into the game. Houston came out ice cold shooting-wise, and Tugler was the only form of scoring for them. UH struggled with fouling and continued to miss shots even with offensive rebounds and turnovers. The ugly was only short-lived in this one for the Cougars.
Houston will return home to take on West Virginia on Tuesday in the Fertitta Center for their Houston Blue game.
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.