Junior guard Alecia Smith’s last-second prayer didn’t land — the Houston women’s basketball team fell in their home opener to Incarnate Word 48-50.
In a game where the Cougars struggled to get anything going offensively going throughout, the Houston defense rallied to hold Incarnate Word to five points over the final 7:13 and overcame a 12-point second half deficit to tie the game at 48 with 7.4 seconds remaining.
The little things made big impacts in the close game, and the foul line became a key player in the matchup as the Cougars were just 7-16 from the line. The loss against Incarnate Word marks the second straight game in which Houston shot worse than 50 percent from the line.
“We practice that every day, every game we want to be above 65 percent on free throw shooting,” said head coach Ronald Hughey. “If we shoot 60 percent today, we win the game.”
The Cougars also got into foul trouble and committed 26 team fouls, setting up Incarnate Word in the double bonus in both halves which ended up deciding the game as Incarnate Word center Shanise Brooks was fouled with 2.2 seconds left and sank both shots for the two-point victory.
A big key to Houston’s victory over North Texas last Friday was the ability to control the boards, but the Cougars were unable to do the same against the Cardinals, as they were out-rebounded 37-46.
“Rebounding will be the first thing we work on in practice tomorrow,” Hughey said.
The Cougars got out to an early 7-2 lead but had trouble navigating the Cardinals’ zone defense and settled for taking 22 three-pointers in the game while making only five of them.
“We were unable to feed the center in their zone and settled for a lot of jump shots, we shot 22 threes and we never want to shoot more than 12,” Hughey said.
One of the few positives to come from the game was the Cougars ability to comeback from a deficit and not give up when things looked difficult.
The Cougars were led offensively by Smith, who finished with 16 points in addition to her four assists and two rebounds.
Houston looks to rebound off the disappointing loss on Friday, as they travel to Corpus Christi to take on Texas A&M — Corpus Christi.
