UH women’s basketball finished the regular season at 13-15. | Raphael Fernandez/The Cougar
The UH women’s basketball team finished its regular season off with a final home win on senior night, pulling away from Wichita State in the fourth quarter to come away with a 62-55 victory.
Neither team could gain a significant advantage in the first half, with the largest lead in the half being just five points.
The Shockers ended the first quarter with a narrow 15-14 lead, but a 10-point second quarter from junior guard Laila Blair gave the Cougars a three-point advantage at the half.
The third quarter began as a razor-close affair with four lead changes in the first three minutes. After a Wichita State basket with 6:47 left in the quarter, the teams remained deadlocked at 36 for over three more minutes.
The Cougars then broke the tie and embarked on an 8-1 run to take their biggest lead of the game up to that point.
All eight of UH’s points came off of turnovers, thanks in part to five steals combined from redshirt senior guard Britney Onyeje and grad student forward Tatyana Hill.
The Shockers fought back in the final minute of the quarter and hit two threes to shrink the lead. UH entered the final quarter with a 44-43 lead.
Midway through the fourth, the Cougars made their run.
An Onyeje three kicked off a crucial 7-0 surge to give UH a 57-47 lead with under three and a half minutes to go.
Wichita State brought it back to within four points with over 90 seconds to go, but the Cougar defense held firm, and senior forward Bria Patterson nailed a dagger three to ice the game in the final 30 seconds.
Four different Cougars scored in double digits, but Patterson finished as the team’s leading scorer with 14 points.
UH finished the regular season with a 13-15 overall record and 10-5 in the American Athletic Conference. The Cougars will be the fourth seed in the conference tournament in Fort Worth and will face SMU in the first round on Tuesday.
