Freshman guard Laila Blair led UH women’s basketball in scoring with 11 points in the loss against UCF. | Andy Yanez/The Cougar
The Houston women’s basketball team fell short against Central Florida, 61-39, to end American Athletic Conference tournament play on Wednesday evening.
“We just couldn’t sustain and do the things necessary to be successful for us,” head coach Ronald Hughey told reporters after the game. “But again, I’m really proud of our team and how far we’ve come this year.”
After a second quarter of turnovers and few shot attempts on the UH side, combined with UCF’s 50 percent shooting, the Cougars were unable to recover.
“They were really aggressive in that 3-2 (zone),” Hughey said. “Their top three guards put so much pressure on the ball.”
The trouble the Knights defense caused on UH in the first quarter seeped into the second frame as poor shooting and turnovers haunted the Cougars for the rest of the game.
While UH began to take more shots, not enough were falling in. The Cougars ended the game shooting only 26.4 percent from the field, including a low 12.5 percent from 3-point range.
Along with the rough shooting night, the Cougars were out-rebounded 45-26.
The UH women’s basketball team hoped to beat UCF and take the entire tournament to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament, but with the 61-39 loss, all the Cougars can do is sit back and wait to see if they earned a trip to the big dance, which Hughey believes his team deserves.
The head coach said he will still gather his team on Selection Monday to see if his team gets a call to the big dance in San Antonio.
ESPN’s Charlie Creme had UH in its first four out prior to Wednesday’s loss.
“Hopefully things will fall into our favor, because again, I thought we had a resume, non-conference and conference wise, with some major wins to put us in the tournament,” Hughey said.
