Starting on Dec. 4, the UH Women’s basketball team has played three games on the road. The Cougars started their road trip off well, first defeating the then undefeated Texas Tech Red Raiders, and then squeaking by the then 4-4 Miami Hurricanes. After those two games, the Cougars traveled to Akron, where they lost 81-76 on Dec. 16.
The Cougars were able to put a 66-63 blemish on the undefeated Texas Tech Red Raiders’ record behind a game-high 17-point effort by senior guard Twiggy McIntyre.
Freshman forward Courtney Taylor achieved her second career double-double, with 13 points and a team-high 11 boards, contributing to the team total of 42 rebounds.
Though the Raiders grabbed 10 more rebounds than the Cougars, they also had 20 turnovers, to the Cougars’ 13. The Cougars turned those 20 turnovers into 20 points.
The game was a back-and-forth battle, but the Cougars put the exclamation point on it with an 11-5 run to finish out the second half. This road victory gave the Cougars their first win on the road in 16 games, a streak that began in February of 2006.
In the sandwich game of their road trip, the Cougars defeated a Miami team that came in with a 4-4 record on the season. This game was much closer than the others, ending with a final score of 63-62 in favor of the Cougars.
The Cougars were nagged by 24 turnovers, their second most this season. Miami took advantage of those turnovers, scoring 21 points from them.
Miami guard Maurita Ried led the game in scoring, with 20 points. Fortunately, the Cougars were able to out-rebound the Hurricanes 39-32, 15 of which were on the offensive side.
Senior guard Tye Jackson led the Cougars in scoring, with 15 points, to which she added eight rebounds and seven assists. Behind her was senior forward Whitney James, who scored her season high 13 points.
Miami went on a 21-3 run, which was marked by four straight three pointers by Epiphany Woodson. Houston held off Miami, though, and took their final lead on a pair of free throws by McIntyre.
In the final minute of the game, Miami had plenty of opportunities to take the lead, but was unable to find the bottom of the net, and left with the score settled at 63-62 when the buzzer sounded.
The Cougars lost the final of their three games on December 16, falling to an Akron team that leveled up to 5-5 with the victory. Though they had the slim 33-29 lead at halftime, the Cougars could not hold on in the end. After withstanding a giant Akron run toward the end of the second half, the Cougars began their own 9-1 run, to go ahead by one point with 2:25 left in the game. Akron would then go on a run to swell their lead to six points, from which the Cougars would never come back.
Leading the game in scoring was Houston’s freshman center Cobilyn Hill, who finished with 23 points, and 13 rebounds. Both of those totals were career highs for the young freshman, who stepped up in the absence of Taylor, who was out with a back injury.
Hill was a major contributor to the Cougars’ 42 points from inside the paint. McIntyre finished the game with 18 points, while Jackson had 13.
Leading the Zips scoring attack was Keyla Snowden, who scored 22 points off the bench. The Cougars were able to out-rebound the Akron side by a margin of 46-35, and capitalized on those rebounds to the tune of 19 second-chance points.
Unfortunately, Houston only shot 38 percent from the field, including 20 percent from behind the arc in the second half.
Akron was 13-27 from the field and 7-13 from three-point range during the second half. The inability of the Cougars to stop the offense of Akron, accompanied by their own poor shooting in the second half, was too much for the Cougars to overcome, as they fell 81-76 in Akron.
The Cougars will surely be excited now and return home for a 6-game home stand, which begins on Dec. 21 against TCU at 7 p.m.
