Mountaineers blown out

Houston, Cryer stay undefeated with first Big 12 conference win

L. J. Cryer scored 20 points, Damian Dunn added 14 points and No. 3 Houston improved to 14-0 with an 8955 win against visiting West Virginia in the Cougars’ inaugural Big 12 contest on Saturday.

Cryer scored 16 points in the first half on 6-of-7 shooting, including four 3-pointers, as Houston shot 58% as a team and took a 48-22 lead into halftime. Cryer has scored at least 20 points in five games this season.

“We focused on defense, and I felt like we were going to get out into transition and get easier shots,” Cryer said. “Just being locked in on defense will make you dialed in on offense. I felt like because I was defensive focused today that’s why the ball was going in.”

Ja’Vier Francis had 13 points and five rebounds, and Jamal Shead had eight points and 11 assists for Houston, which shot 53% overall, including 9 of 18 on 3-pointers.

Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said the first Big 12 conference game didn’t feel any different to him.

“We wanted to win for sure, and there’s an excitement about playing our first conference game,” Sampson said. “Now we go play our second one. I don’t spend a lot of time with the hoopla stuff.”

Houston extended its home winning streak to 14. The Cougars improved to 140 for the third time in school history, joining the 1967-68 and 2018-19 teams.

Other district men

Loyola Chicago 72, Duquesne 67: Philip Alston led Loyola Chicago (10-5, 2-0 A-10) with 17 points and both Dame Adelekun and Desmond Watson poured in 15 as the host Ramblers pulled away to keep Duquesne (9-5, 0-2) winless in conference play. David Dixon had 19 points off the bench for the Dukes which led all scorers.

District women

Texas 70, West Virginia 49: Add West Virginia’s Mark Kellogg to the growing list of coaches left impressed after watching Madison Booker of Texas on her freshman tour of the Big 12.

Booker had 15 points and a season-high 12 rebounds and she bounced back from a hard fall late to lead No. 10 Texas to a 70-49 win over No. 24 West Virginia on Saturday.

“She’s elite. We knew that coming in,” Kellogg said. “At times she made it look easy.”

Booker is averaging 18.5 points in four games since moving from her regular forward position to point guard after teammate Rori Harmon was lost for the season with a knee injury.

JJ Quinerly led West Virginia with 22 points and Jordan Harrison added 10. Hounded by Booker, Quinerly made 6 of 20 field goals, including 1 of 12 from 3-point range.