Dedan Thomas Jr. Scores 17 as No. 8 Houston Routs Jacksonville State 92-46

Jacksonville State got one good punch in on Wednesday night, a 9-0 run midway through the first half that briefly made the scoreboard look respectable. Everything else belonged to the home team. No. 8 Houston beat Jacksonville State 92-46 at Fertitta Center, never trailing and finishing with its largest lead of the night on the final basket.

Dedan Thomas Jr. led Houston with 17 points and seven assists, going 5-of-8 from the field and 6-of-6 at the free throw line in 28 minutes. Mercy Miller added 15 points, five assists and two steals in just 19 minutes, and Chendall Weaver scored 10 off the bench. Houston improved to 3-0. Jacksonville State fell to 1-2.

The final numbers were as lopsided as the score. Houston shot 53.7 percent from the field, outrebounded the Gamecocks 46-26, outscored them 36-10 in the paint and turned 14 Jacksonville State turnovers into 20 points while giving up only two points off its own 10 giveaways. The Cougars led for 98 percent of the game, according to ESPN, and the margin peaked at 46. A crowd of 7,035 watched the first meeting ever between the two programs.

A Fast Start, Then a Brief Answer

Houston did not waste much time. Arafan Diane scored on a hook shot off a Thomas assist to make it 11-2 with 16:45 left in the first half, Delrecco Gillespie hit a 3 from the top for a 15-3 lead, and Thomas buried a 3 off a Corey Hadnot II pass at the 13:07 mark to make it 18-3. By the time Jacksonville State scored again from the field, Houston had pushed the lead to 22-3.

That is when the Gamecocks found something. Leon Horner hit a 3 with 11:33 left, Chris Lockett Jr. followed with a 3 off a Horner assist, and Horner added a floater to finish a 9-0 run that cut the deficit to 22-12 at the 9:28 mark. For a few minutes, Jacksonville State was moving the ball and making shots.

Chase McCarty ended the run with a 3 off a Thomas feed, and Houston quickly went back to work inside. Jordan Stiemke answered with a 3 to make it 25-15, but Diane scored twice on passes from Miller and Gillespie threw down a dunk off a McCarty assist to make it 33-15 with 5:46 left. McCarty hit another 3, Thomas added a pull-up jumper, and Hadnot's floater with 27 seconds left made it 45-21. Horner's jumper with four seconds left sent Jacksonville State to the locker room down 45-23.

The Second Half Gets Away

Jacksonville State scored the first basket after the break on an Ethan Croley dunk set up by Horner, but the Gamecocks never got closer than 18 the rest of the way. Thomas hit a jumper and a driving layup, and Hadnot scored on back-to-back possessions to stretch the lead to 53-29 with 15:38 left.

Naas Cunningham kept Jacksonville State from sinking entirely. Cunningham hit 3-pointers at the 15:24 and 10:26 marks, and Croley and Lockett chipped in baskets. Houston had an answer each time. Weaver hit a 26-foot 3 off a Joseph Tugler assist to make it 58-34, Braden East scored on a dunk and two layups in a span of about four minutes, and the lead reached 66-39 with 7:48 to play.

Miller then took over for a stretch. Miller converted an and-1 layup off a Thomas pass at the 6:31 mark to push the lead past 30, drained a 3 from 25 feet a minute later, and finished a dunk with 3:24 left that made it 85-44. Alijah Curry's layup at 3:04 was the last Jacksonville State basket. Bryce Jackson hit two jumpers, Diane made a free throw, and Kordel Jefferson closed the scoring with a dunk with 55 seconds left to finish a 7-0 Houston run.

Thomas and Miller Set the Tone

Thomas has been the engine of Houston's offense all season, and Wednesday was more of the same. Thomas made 5 of 8 shots, hit a 3, did not miss at the line and handed out seven assists against two turnovers. Thomas assisted on a Diane hook shot, a Gillespie 3 and both of McCarty's first-half 3s.

Miller did plenty in limited minutes. In 19 minutes, Miller made 4 of 7 shots, 1 of 3 from deep and 6 of 8 free throws, with four rebounds, five assists and two steals. Miller also had a hand in the first-half spurt that put the game away, assisting on both of Diane's baskets during that stretch.

Gillespie was perfect from 3 in limited attempts and made 3 of 4 shots overall for seven points with four rebounds. McCarty went 2-of-4, with both makes from 3, for six points and added seven rebounds and a block. Tugler had a quiet scoring night at four points on 1-of-6 shooting but led Houston with eight rebounds, three of them offensive, and blocked two shots.

A Deep Bench Does the Rest

Houston's reserves scored 43 points, nearly matching the starters' 49. Weaver, a graduate guard who made a Houston debut against California, scored 10 points in 11 minutes. Weaver went 1-of-1 from the field on a 3 and 7-of-8 at the free throw line, adding four rebounds and a steal.

Diane was 3-of-3 from the field and 3-of-4 at the line for nine points with four rebounds in 16 minutes. East scored eight points on 3-of-5 shooting with five rebounds, and Hadnot added seven points and two assists despite going 0-of-5 from 3. Jefferson scored five points with two steals, and Jackson made both shots for four points late.

The foul disparity helped too. Jacksonville State was whistled for 27 fouls to Houston's 15, and the Cougars made 27 of 32 free throws. Horner fouled out after 14 minutes, and Kash Polk and Marvin Christie III each finished with four fouls.

Jacksonville State Struggles to Score

Cunningham led the Gamecocks with 13 points, going 4-of-12 from the field and 3-of-8 from 3, with two steals. Stiemke, who entered the night averaging 22.0 points per game according to Houston's game preview, was held to 10 points on 2-of-9 shooting, though Stiemke did grab a team-high seven rebounds and hit two 3s. Horner scored nine points with a team-high four assists before fouling out, and Croley added six points on 3-of-7 shooting.

Lockett, who came in averaging 17.0 points and 9.0 assists, was held to five points on 2-of-7 shooting with no assists and two turnovers in 30 minutes. As a team, Jacksonville State shot 26.8 percent from the field, made 7 of 26 3-pointers and finished with eight assists on 15 baskets.

The Gamecocks did compete on the glass at the offensive end, grabbing 11 offensive rebounds to Houston's 13, and they came up with eight steals. But they scored only 10 points in the paint, three in transition and two off turnovers, and those numbers left little margin against a defense this good.

What It Means

For Houston, this was a tidy final tune-up before a much bigger test. The Cougars opened with a 94-55 win over La Salle and beat California 86-68 at the Caesars Lake Tahoe Classic, and Wednesday's win was their third straight by a wide margin. It was also Veterans Day Military Appreciation night at Fertitta Center, according to the school.

The rotation looked deep and comfortable. Eleven Houston players scored, and seven grabbed at least four rebounds. The defense held Jacksonville State to 23 points in each half.

For Jacksonville State, it was a rough trip after a double-overtime loss at South Alabama. Ray Harper, in an 11th season at Jacksonville State, was facing Houston and coach Kelvin Sampson for the first time. The Gamecocks will hope to get Stiemke and Lockett back on track before Conference USA play arrives.

Read about Houston's season-opening win over La Salle and the 86-68 win over California at Lake Tahoe. For full stats, see the ESPN box score (opens in a new tab).

Sources: ESPN box score, team stats and play-by-play, Houston Athletics game preview. More men's college basketball coverage on Undrafted.

Houston faces Rutgers at the Players Era 8 Championship at Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Nov. 17, then hosts Oakland on Friday, Nov. 27.

Photo: Houston Athletics (file photo).