University of Houston
13-12, 7-5
Southern Miss
8-17, 4-8
Southern Miss Knocks Off Women's Basketball, 77-68
2/18/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 18, 2010
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Poor shooting and a disadvantage of 49-34 in the rebounding column conspired against the University of Houston women's basketball team on Thursday night at Reed Green Coliseum as the Cougars fell to Southern Miss 77-68.
The loss drops Houston's overall record to 13-12 on the season and its mark in Conference USA games to 7-5, meanwhile, Southern Miss improved to 8-17 and 4-8 in league action.
Junior guard Brittney Scott led the Cougars with 25 points, while junior forward Courtney Taylor collected her 37th career double-double, finishing with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Sophomore point guard Porsche Landry contributed 10 points and tied a career-high with nine assists.
As a team, the Cougars shot 39.7 percent (25-of-63) from the field, boosted heavily by their percentage in the second half when they made 16-of-34 shots (47.1 percentage). For the game, Southern Miss shot 44.3 percent, draining 27-of-61 field goal attempts. Houston, which never led in the contest, was also plagued by 17 turnovers.
The Cougars did not get off to the start they wanted in the contest, misfiring on their first five shots from the field while the Golden Eagles jumped out to an 11-2 lead.
Porous defense by the Cougars and even poorer shooting on the offensive end allowed USM's lead to swell to as many as 24 at 35-11 on a jumper by Candace Rucker with 5:53 left. For the first half, Houston made just 9-of-29 field goals for a (31 percent) compared to the Golden Eagles blistering shooting percentage of 58.6 percent (17-of-29).
During the first half, the Cougars were guilty of 14 turnovers, allowing USM to carry a 41-24 lead into the intermission.
Following halftime, Houston claimed the first five points of the second half to cut the lead to 12 at 41-29 on a 3-pointer by Scott, but USM countered with a run of its over to push the home lead back to 18 with 17:30 to play.
The Cougars were able to cut the lead to 11 on two separate occasions but were never able to cut the lead down to single digits until the game had less than a minute to play when clutch free throw shooting by the Golden Eagles clinched the win.
UP NEXT
The Cougars will play their final road contest of the regular season on Saturday when they travel to Orlando, Fla., to battle UCF in a contest that will be televised on Bright House Sports Network. The UCF contest will mark the third-straight for the Cougars without head coach Joe Curl who is dealing with heath issues in Houston.
