WVU must find a way to take on Houston’s 3-point shooters, as No. 6 Cougars visit Morgantown

MORGANTOWN — You can find long-range shooters on Big 12 basketball teams just as easily as you’d find Mickey and Goofy at Disneyland.

None of them have been able to crack West Virginia’s defense from 3-point land.

Except for Houston, which absolutely torched the Mountaineers from behind the arc two weeks ago in a 70-54 victory.

WVU STATS

The rematch comes at 7 p.m. Wednesday, as the No. 6-ranked Cougars (16-3, 8-0 Big 12) make their first-ever trip to Morgantown.

Houston was 6 of 11 in the first half and then, ahem, cooled off in the second half by going 5 of 15.

That’s 11 3-pointers in all, the most allowed by the Mountaineers (13-6, 4-4) this season.

And they all seemingly came for a variety of reasons, some of which had nothing to do with the Cougars shooters.

Instead, it was the play of forward J’Wan Roberts, who hasn’t attempted a single 3-pointer this season, but scored 22 points down low in the first meeting against WVU.

“We tried to play him one-on-one early, and he goes 8 for 10 in the first half,” WVU head coach Darian DeVries said. “We tried to double him twice and they hit threes on both possessions. They put you in tough spots there.”

There are other tough spots, to be sure.

“Where you really get in trouble is with live-ball turnovers and offensive rebounds and then they kick it out,” DeVries continued. “They’re elite at that.”

Which brings us to Houston’s talented guard duo of L.J. Cryer and Emanuel Sharp.

Both shoot better than 40% from 3-point range, with Sharp’s 44.8% connection rate ranking eighth-best in the nation.

They combined for eight of the Cougars’ threes in that first meeting, all of them seemingly were daggers.

And WVU came away from that game knowing they had made several mistakes in guarding them.

“They’re very good players, but we hurt ourselves with defensive mistakes,” WVU guard Sencire Harris said. “We were going under a lot of ball screens and gave them a lot of open shots when we didn’t need to. We beat ourselves that game.”

What exactly is going under a ball screen? It sounds complicated, but truly isn’t. It just might also be the most important thing to watch today as the Mountaineers attempt the upset.

Picture Cryer or Sharp with the ball at the top of the key. One of their teammates slides over to set a screen.

At that point, the WVU defender has the choice of going under the screener and trying to meet the Houston guard on the other side or attempt to get through the screener by going above him.

By going under the screener, Sharp and Cryer know they can simply step back and shoot a jumper, because now their teammate is between the shooter and defender.

“We made five or six mistakes where we went under a ball screen,” DeVries said. “They made us pay on every single one of them. They can do that to you.”

The decision by WVU defenders is made at rapid-fire pace in the heat of the moment. There isn’t time to stop and smell the roses, so to speak.

“You go under a screen, they’re going to tee one up,” DeVries continued. “They put you in tough spots, because sometimes they’ll screen you and then re-screen you. It sounds easy, ‘Just don’t do that.’ They make it challenging.”