Women's Basketball

Poor shooting in second half brings season to a close

The Cougars were unable to dig themselves out of a second-half shooting hole in Wednesday’s quarterfinal matchup against UCF in the Conference USA tournament, losing 74-59 in Tulsa, Okla.

The demise started early in the second half when they went cold from the field by missing eight consecutive shots.

UH went scoreless in the first four minutes, and the Golden Knights took advantage by jumping to a 58-46 lead.After she picked up her fourth foul less than three minutes into the second half, redshirt senior guard Porsche Landry was forced to sit out the next 10 minutes.

Landry could not finish the game the way she started.

She went a perfect 7-of-7 from the field, including three 3-pointers to tally 16 points in the first half, but she scored only three points in the second.

Although UH cut the lead to nine when Landry found freshman forward Marche Amerson for a 3-pointer with 1:39 remaining — Landry’s 483rd career assist, which passed Betty Darthard for the No. 1 spot in UH history — the deficit proved too large as UCF put the game away with free throws.

Similar to their previous meeting less than two weeks ago, the Cougars were unable to contain UCF’s guard play or rebound well.

After Monday’s practice, head coach Todd Buchanan said it was imperative to limit the Knights guards, freshman Briahanna Jackson and senior Gevenia Carter, and to crash the boards, aspects of the game he said led to the Feb 28 loss.

“We’re going to have to contain Jackson and Carter. They had combined for 43 of their team’s 68 points last time,” Buchanan said. “The other part is that we’re going to have to keep Erika Jones off the boards. She had 18 rebounds by herself last time.”

Buchanan’s plan did not work.

Carter and Jackson had an encore performance Wednesday as they combined for 47 points. Jones also had her way on the boards once again, grabbing a game-high 17 rebounds.

UH shot 52 percent from the field in the first half but only shot 23 in the second.

The season was not a complete loss though.

The first-round exit from the conference tournament comes as a disappointment to the Cougars, but their 13-17 record represents a nine-game improvement from last season.

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