A career-high tie in points for guard Angela Harris (0) wasn’t enough for a win against the Knights, as the Cougars gave the ball away 29 times. | Ajani Stewart/The Cougar
The Cougars suffered a heartbreaking 85-59 loss on the road in their rematch against the Central Florida Knights in Orlando Wednesday night.
The defeat comes only four days after breaking an eight game losing streak with a win over the East Carolina Pirates. With the loss, the Cougars fall to 9-15 on the season with a 2-9 record in the conference.
Freshman guard Angela Harris led the team with 22 points, matching her career high.
Two other players scored in the double digits, however, the team’s 42 percent shooting rate could not compensate for the 29 turnovers committed with 17 of them coming in the second half.
Houston began slowly, allowing UCF a 7-3 run in the opening minutes, but the Cougars scored a 7-0 of their own to end the quarter, tying things up at 18-18. The team found their way to the free-throw line eight times, converting seven of those shots into points.
The Cougars opened up the second quarter with a pair of three-pointers from Harris, giving Houston a six-point lead, but despite the freshman’s explosive playing, the Cougars relinquished the lead after an 11-2 run from the Knights.
The Cougars entered halftime down 10, 43-33, after allowing the Knights to score 25 in the second quarter.
With the exception of the Cougars’ victory against ECU, the second half has been Houston’s downfall over the past few contests with the team failing to put away games.
The Knights started the half with a 6-2 run, but the Cougars countered with a 14-6 run to close the quarter down by only six points.
The final quarter is where things went awry for Houston. After an aggressive run from UCF, the Cougars turned the ball over on four consecutive possessions, vanquishing all efforts from the offense and putting the game just out of reach.
With this loss, UCF sweeps the season series against the Cougars and improves to 14-9 on the season, 4-6 in the American Athletic Conference.
Houston will play in front of a home crowd at Hofheinz Pavilion on Saturday, taking on the Cincinnati Bearcats, with tipoff scheduled for 2 p.m.
