The Cougars entered the third game of their four game road trip against Tulsa on Thursday. Unfortunately, Houston finished with their fourth straight loss, as the game ended 66-57.
Tulsa improved 10-16 overall and 6-7 in Conference USA play. The Cougars fell to 14-13 overall and 8-5 in C-USA play.
The Cougars were down 27-31 at halftime, and were again left to attempt a comeback. The team was again plagued by turnovers, giving up 13 in the first half of play. While they were almost equal to Tulsa’s 11, they were only able to score eight points off the turnovers. Houston shot well in the first half at 48 percent, but was out-rebounded 24-15.
The combination of turnovers and a poor rebounding effort led to the four point halftime deficit.
In the second half, Houston was unable to come back largely due to their shooting woes. The Cougars only knocked down 11 of 30 (36.7 percent) from the field in the second half, while Tulsa improved to 48 percent from the floor, besting their first-half effort of 33.3 percent.
The two teams were even on boards, managing 19 rebounds apiece after the break, but Houston turned the ball over ten more times in the second half.
The combination of poor shooting and turnovers allowed Tulsa to outscore Houston 35-30.
Senior forward Whitney James, senior guard Twiggy McIntyre, and senior forward Ryan Meyers all tied for the team lead with 10 points in the game.
Freshman forward Courtney Taylor accounted for 9 of the Cougars’ 34 rebounds in the contest. Tulsa guard Tatum Beer had a game high 15 points for the Golden Hurricanes.
With the loss, the Cougars take sole possession of fourth place in the conference.
Houston will look to turn around its four game losing streak on the road against Southern Methodist.
The Cougars began their current losing streak when they lost their first meeting with SMU 74-51. Houston needs to break their losing streak soon, or they risk falling out of the top four in the conference standings, which would force them to give up a first round bye in the C-USA tournament.
The Cougars will play their next game at 2 p.m. Saturday in Dallas.
