Houston basketball freshman Kingston Flemings drops 42 in loss to Texas Tech

Houston fell short in its Saturday afternoon top-15 matchup with Texas Tech, but a new college basketball star was born in freshman guard Kingston Flemings.

The San Antonio, Texas, native put together one of the best individual performances of the season in the loss, dropping 42 points, six assists, two rebounds and two steals. Flemings became the first freshman guard to score at least 30 points with five or more assists on the road since Oklahoma’s Trae Young, according to the ESPN broadcast.

Kingston Flemings vs Texas Tech:

42 PTS
6 ASTS
15-26 FG
4-9 3PT

One of the best performances of the season pic.twitter.com/XfeSrmFerw

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) January 24, 2026

Flemings did his damage from all over the court, nailing four of his nine three-point attempts while routinely getting into the paint at will. He accounted for 49 percent of Houston’s 86 points in the defeat.

Flemings did not begin the game as Houston’s leading scorer — senior guard Emanuel Sharp was just a notch above him with 15.9 points per game entering Saturday — but he has been scorching hot over the last month. With his 42-point outburst, the freshman has led the team in scoring in five of its last seven games, during which he is averaging 20 points per game.

Sharp was also on point in the loss, adding 20 points, his most in January. However, no other Cougar scored more than six points.

Flemings is now up to 17.0 points per game on the year, a top-15 mark in the Big 12. Kelvin Sampson’s Houston teams are not typically led by a singular dominant scorer on offense, but he might finally have one in Fleming.

A former four-star recruit, Flemings was the No. 22 prospect in the class of 2025 by ESPN and No. 20 by 247 Sports. His college basketball career got off to an up-and-down start at Houston, but he has certainly found a rhythm in the second half of the season.

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