University of Houston
-1514, 96 CUSA
East Carolina
-1315, 78 CUSA
Women's Basketball Wins 72-69 Thriller Over East Carolina
2/28/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 28, 2008
HOUSTON - A three-pointer by Tye Jackson (Houston, Texas/Westfield HS/Purdue) with 28 seconds left helped lead the University of Houston women's basketball team to a 72-69 win over East Carolina, Thursday in Conference USA action on Guy V. Lewis Court at Hofheinz Pavilion.
Jackson's three, drained as time ran down on the shot clock, handed UH a 70-69 with under 30 seconds left. On the ensuing possession, Courtney Taylor (Crockett, Texas/Crockett HS) ended up on the bottom of the pile chasing after a loose ball and called timeout, giving the Cougars the ball with nine seconds remaining.
Twiggy McIntyre (Sapulpa, Okla./Sapulpa HS/Kansas State) was fouled on the inbounds play and then calmly swished two from the charity stripe to give the Cougars a three point lead, 72-69, with just over 8 seconds left. UH clinched the win when ECU's game-tying 3-pointer sailed left of the basket as time expired.
Houston (15-14, 9-6 C-USA), who trailed by 14 midway through the first half, snapped a five-game losing skid and clinched a first-round bye in the 2008 C-USA Women's Basketball Championship, scheduled to take place March 6-9 in Orlando, Fla.
East Carolina (13-15, 7-8 C-USA) fell to 0-7 all-time versus the Cougars.
"A great effort by our kids tonight," interim head coach Danny Hughes said. "We battled back from an early deficit and beat a good team. East Carolina played awfully well tonight and I thought we did a good job of handling their runs."
The senior backcourt duo of Jackson and McIntyre combined for all eight of UH's three pointers and poured in 19 points and 18 points, respectively. Jackson dished out five assists and blocked two shots in the contest while McIntyre had a pair of assists and steals.
Taylor also scored in double figures, posting 10 points and nine rebounds.
The Pirates made the most of 17 Cougar miscues, outscoring Houston 21-9 in points off turnovers. ECU also owned a 36-26 point differential in the paint, but Houston's bench - led by Whitney James (Edmond, Okla./Edmond Memorial HS/North Oklahoma College) with six points and four rebounds - kept the game close as it outscored the Pirates' bench 21-10. The Cougars also added 15 second-chance points off of 11 offensive rebounds.
Both teams exchanged baskets throughout a wild second half, as the margin see-sawed back and forth with nine lead changes.
Houston used an 11-3 run over 5:24 to lead by seven, its biggest advantage of the game, 57-50 with 7:28 to go. ECU responded with a 11-2 run of its own to lead by two 61-59 with 4:13 remaining.
On UH's next possession, Jackson converted a four-point play to put the Cougars back up by a pair, 63-61 with 4:00 left. A triple by McIntyre the next time down the floor put the Houston advantage at five, 66-61, with just over three minutes to go.
LaCoya Terry scored five of ECU's next six points to pull the Pirates ahead 67-66 with just over a minute left. UH's Taylor split a pair of free throws the next time down the floor to knot things once again and a layup by Jasmine Young with 48 seconds left gave ECU a 69-67 lead and set up the final 30 seconds for Houston.
Terry led the way for ECU with 19 points. Young added 11 and Nicole Days finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Gabriela Husarova scored a 13 and Allison Spivey grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.
The Cougars struggled through a sluggish start, missing its first five attempts from the field and coughing up three turnovers as East Carolina ran out to a 15-1 lead five minutes into the first half.
James connected for the first Cougar field goal with 15:20 remaining in the half. UH then went on to reel off a 25-10 run over the next 10 minutes to take its first lead of the contest on a Twiggy McIntyre 3-pointer at 26-25.
Jackson helped spark the rally scoring seven of her 10 first half points during the run.
ECU responded by ripping off an 8-0 spurt to reclaim the lead, as the Pirates rode a 33-31 advantage into the intermission.
A familiar face was in the crowd tonight as head coach Joe Curl made his first appearance at Hofheinz Pavilion since suffering a heart attack on Oct. 27, 2007. Curl made an appearance on the floor during warmups and watched the game in the locker room.
Houston finishes out the regular season Saturday, taking on Marshall at 1 p.m. at Hofheinz Pavilion.
The Marshall game will serve as senior day as Houston will recognize the contributions of its five-member senior class. Jackson, Whitney James, McIntyre, Ryan Meyers and Alona Obaze will be honored on a pregame ceremony.
Fans can listen to a free internet radio broadcast of all UH games this year by clicking on the Stretch Internet Broadcast link at UHCougars.com. Streaming video for all home games will also be made available through the All-Access package at UHCougars.com.
