The laundry list of streaks was long and impressive, and it represented in part what No. 5 Houston can accomplish when performing at its peak.
On Saturday, the Cougars were not at their best and visiting Texas Tech made them pay, claiming an 82-81 overtime win that snapped three notable winning streaks, starting with a 13-game run that was second-longest in the nation.
The Cougars (17-4, 9-1 Big 12) also said goodbye to their 18-game conference win streak — the second-best in Big 12 history — and a 33-game homecourt win streak dating back to Jan. 22, 2023, which was the longest active in Division I.
Houston will attempt a restart on all three on Tuesday when it hosts Oklahoma State (11-10, 3-7).
“I told our guys, ‘You’re going to lose games, especially when a team plays as good as that team played,'” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said of Texas Tech. “You’re going to lose games. Everybody is. What are we, the team of the century? We’re not going to lose games? It’s not going to be our last loss. We’re going to lose another game.
“We won one we probably shouldn’t have won (last) Saturday (at Kansas). The gods will even that stuff out.”
The setback underscored the rigors of the Big 12. Houston fell into a tie for first place atop the league with Arizona, which won a hotly contested battle against rival Arizona State. Iowa State had its 29-game homecourt winning streak snapped with a 19-point loss to Kansas State. Kansas blew a 21-point lead on the road and lost by double digits to Baylor.
Houston might prove to be the class of the Big 12. That doesn’t make the Cougars infallible.
“We lost a game. It’s not the end of the world,” Sampson said. “We shouldn’t walk around here thinking we own the basketball universe and we’re never going to lose a game. If you play in the Big 12 and you play 20 games, you’re going to get nicked.
“If you’re going to play in this league, you’re going to play teams that are good enough to beat you.”
L.J. Cryer led Houston with 22 points and three 3-pointers in the loss. He remains the Cougars’ top scorer at 14.1 points per game, supported by Emanuel Sharp (12.5) and J’Wan Roberts (11.3).
Oklahoma State snapped a three-game skid with an 81-72 home win over Utah on Saturday. The Cowboys, who dropped their Big 12 opener to the Cougars on Dec. 30, posted a plus-3 rebounding margin in the win, a positive development in advance of their rematch with Houston.
“If you don’t rebound against Houston you’re going to get sent home in a body bag,” Cowboys coach Steve Lutz said.
All three of the Cowboys’ losses before the Utah victory came by double digits. The win was sorely needed, and it represented something Oklahoma State hopes to build upon.
“We’ve just got to take the good from it,” said Cowboys graduate guard Bryce Thompson, who tallied a game-high 20 points against Utah. “I’m sure there are a bunch of clips that coach will pull up (Sunday) morning of things we can get better at, a couple blown assignments. I think we learn from those and take the good that we did and just try to carry it on.
“We’re going into a tough environment where we’re going to have to be together as a team and we’re going to have to go out there and throw the first punch.”
Marchelus Avery paces Oklahoma State with 12.7 ppg, and Thompson and Abou Ousmane each average 11.8 per game.
–Field Level Media
