Senior guard Tiara Young led the Cougars with 24 points and four rebounds in a loss against SMU. | Sean Thomas/The Cougar
The Houston women’s basketball team dropped its third consecutive game with a 53-50 loss on the road against SMU on Friday.
The loss now drops the Cougars to a 6-13 record on the season and 3-3 in conference play.
In the first quarter, the Cougars took the lead early after forcing several turnovers to spark momentum defensively.
The game quickly shifted as the Mustangs took the lead 6-2, but senior forward Bria Patterson sunk a quick three to start an 11-0 run to hand the Cougars a 13-6 lead.
The Cougars ended the first quarter in dominating fashion to lead 17-11.
In the second quarter, SMU sparked its own run to tighten the gap at 21-17. A turnover-fest led to exchanged points on both ends as the Mustangs kept the deficit to under five points and trail at the half 28-24.
SMU took over to start the third quarter including a 6-0 run to lead 31-30 for the game’s first lead change since the first quarter.
The Mustangs slowly extended its lead to 43-36 before the Cougars bounced back at the end of the third quarter with a 5-0 run and to trail 45-41.
In the fourth quarter, UH turned momentum its way to even the score at 46-46, but SMU responded with a 4-0 run to lead 50-46.
UH found itself in a scoring drought but that changed when it made a quick four points to make the game close at 52-50 with 21 seconds left.
With the ball inside the final second of the game, the Cougars missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer to secure the Mustangs win.
Senior guard Tiara Young led the Cougars with 24 points and four rebounds while Patterson finished with 10 points and six rebounds. The Cougars recorded a season high eight team blocks.
UH will now remain on the road and face Cincinnati on Wednesday, Jan. 25 at 6 p.m.
