The UH women’s basketball team is one of six teams tied atop Conference USA, and has a chance to knock off one of its first place roommates when the Cougars take on Southern Miss. tonight at 7 p.m. in Hattiesburg, Miss.
Conference road games are never easy, but UH head coach Joe Curl knows a victory in the Golden Eagles’ gym will go a long way in the Cougars’ quest for an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
‘Any road trip is tough,’ Curl said. ‘They are a great home team. A win in their house would be a great win for our team.’
Containing Southern Miss’ offense will be a tough task for Curl’s team. The Golden Eagles (10-7, 3-1 C-USA) have the third best scoring offense in C-USA, while the Cougars (11-5, 3-1) rank third in scoring defense.
‘They are very good on offense,’ Curl said. ‘We’ll have to perform very well, and pressure them. We want to make them play fast.’
From an individual standpoint, the Cougars must find a way to stop junior forward Pauline Love. Love has averaged 18.8 points and 11.8 rebounds per game in conference play, and will be a tough assignment for the UH defense.
‘It will start with (sophomore forward) Courtney Taylor,’ Curl said. ‘We’ll also let (sophomore forward) Brittany Mason play on (Love) some because (Mason) is such a good defender.’
Taylor’s offense could be affected, because she will be chasing Love around the court. Also, the Golden Eagles will guard Taylor with two players, forcing her teammates to take up the slack.
‘The other four people on the court will have to step up and make shots,’ Curl said. ‘They’re going to double (Taylor) and try to frustrate her.’
The Cougars will try to take advantage of Southern Miss’ poor turnover margin. The Golden Eagles have averaged more turnovers than it has forced per game during conference play. Curl knows that his team must exploit the Golden Eagles’ ball-handling problems so they can control the game’s tempo.
‘We’re going to guard the entire court,’ Curl said. ‘We want to speed them up, but we also have to make sure to get back into our half-court defense and not give up any easy baskets.’
UH leads C-USA in steals per game with 12.5, which should give it a great chance to force Southern Miss. to make several mistakes. However, the Cougars will face a tough challenge in the rebounding department, a category that the Golden Eagles have dominated this season. Southern Miss has pulled down seven more boards per game than its opponents.
‘(Rebounding) is something that we’ve preached since we started practice,’ Curl said. ‘We won’t get to where we want to be without getting better at rebounding. We want to send all five players to the glass on the defensive end.’
Although UH is starting to hit its stride on the defensive end, Curl still has concerns about his offense, which is averaging less than 40 percent shooting per game this season.
‘We will have to play great full-court offense, but we’ll have to be even better in our half-court sets,’ Curl said. ‘We have to execute on the offensive end to keep up with them, because they’re so good offensively.’
A road win against a conference foe is always valuable, no matter how a team achieves victory, but most of the time it is easier said than done.
