No. 1 Houston’s top three scorers finished with more combined points than the entire opposing team in Wednesday night’s 78-45 beatdown of visiting Oakland.
Emanuel Sharp finished with 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field with four rebounds and four assists. Kingston Flemings had 19 points and nine assists. Chris Cenac Jr. contributed 11 points and four rebounds.
Oakland (0-3) made 16 of 51 shots (31.4%) against the Cougars’ stifling defense.
The Golden Grizzlies made 19 shots from 3-point range in their first two games against Michigan and Purdue. They went 0-for-5 from beyond the arc in the first half against Houston (3-0).
Nassim Mashhour ended the drought with a 3-pointer 15 seconds into the second half.
He finished 3-of-4 from 3-point range. Oakland finished 3-of-13 from the perimeter
Isaac Garrett made half of Oakland’s shots from the field (8 of 16) and finished with a game-high 20 points. He was the Golden Grizzlies’ lone scorer in double figures.
Houston won its first game after swapping spots with Purdue in the Associated Press Top 25 Monday, going from No. 2 to No. 1.
Oakland lost at Purdue 87-77 on Friday.
Houston never trailed against Oakland, taking an 8-0 lead 77 seconds in following 3-pointers by Milos Uzan and Sharp.
By the time the lead increased to 21-8 with 11:58 remaining in the half, Garrett had scored all of Oakland’s points.
Houston later had a 10-0 run and scored the last six points of the first half to build a 39-17 halftime lead.
The Cougars led by at least 19 points in the second half and saw their lead grow as large as 40 points.
Houston outrebounded Oakland 46-32 and outscored the Golden Grizzlies 40-20 in points in the paint.
The Cougars also dominated in transition, outscoring Oakland 17-2 in fastbreak points.
The Golden Grizzlies had only six assists and nearly had as many turnovers (13) as field goals made.
