The West Virginia men’s basketball team lost to new Big 12 opponent in No. 3 Houston on the road 89-55 on Saturday in their first game of conference play, falling to 5-9 on the season.
With Houston’s renowned defense, the Mountaineers struggled offensively all day, shooting 18-56 (32.1%) from the field and just 4-23 (17.4%) from three.
“I was worried about the physicality, the way they play. It’s not a good matchup for us by any means,” West Virginia interim head coach Josh Eilert said.
The Cougars had 10 steals and nine blocks while out-rebounding WVU 40-34.
“I mean, we rebounded better than I thought, but they made shots,” Eilert said.
Houston shot very well from the floor, 34-64 including 9-18 from three. Houston’s top scorer was L.J. Cryer, a familiar Big 12 foe who transferred from Baylor. He had 20 points and shot 4-7 from the arc.
The Cougars also got 31 points from their bench.
Only one Mountaineer finished with double-digit points: Pat Suemnick. Suemnick shot 6 for 8 from the field with 12 points. He also added five rebounds.
“Pat did a good job coming in there and giving us some energy late, and I’m going to have to reward him for the way he played. He played with a sense of urgency. When he came in there, I just kept on telling push the pace, push the pace and try to get something easy downhill because once they got that half-court set, they’re as good as anybody in the country in the half-court defense and they proved it tonight,” Eilert said of Suemnick’s play.
Quinn Slazinski struggled for the Mountaineers, resulting in his minutes being cut in the second half.
“When you look at one rebound in 20 minutes at the four position, that’s a hard one to stare at,” Eilert said of his decision to cut back Slazinski’s minutes in the second half.
West Virginia will have a quick turnaround facing Kansas State home on Tuesday, in their second Big 12 matchup.
“Flush this. And then take that game plan like I said. And we’re going to have a game plan for Kansas State. We got to take that game plan to execute. It can’t just be on the practice floor. Once we get out there and tip the ball up and the lights come on, that game plan has got to stick,” Eilert said when asked what he needs to do before Tuesday.
