UH kept pace with its Conference USA counterparts as four of the Cougars’ five starters scored in double figures to lead UH to a 67-58 win over Marshall on Thursday at the Cam Henderson Center in Huntington, W. Va.
The Cougars (18-9, 10-5) delivered an excellent offensive performance, nailing 24 of their 50 shot attempts, including shooting 5-of-10 from 3-point range. The Cougars’ superior shooting came because of great ball movement, assisting on 16 of their 24 baskets.
‘We played with a little bit of anger today,’ UH head coach Joe Curl said. ‘It may be from what happened to us last week (a home loss to Tulsa on Sunday). We moved the ball really crisp. We just did the little things we needed to do to get back on track.’
The Thundering Herd used a 13-5 run to cut their deficit to 56-50 with 4:29 remaining, but the Cougars kept their cool and shot 9-of-10 from the charity stripe down the stretch to fend off a comeback.
Guard Brittney Scott and forward Courtney Taylor led the Cougars with 16 points each, but UH received its best effort from center Cobilyn Hill.
Hill was plagued with foul trouble, resulting in only 24 minutes of playing time. However, that time was quite efficient as the sophomore scored 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting, grabbed 9 rebounds and blocked 6 shots.
Hill’s presence in the paint forced Marshall (14-14, 7-8) into low-percentage shots, playing a big part in the Thundering Herd’s 37.9 percent overall shooting.
‘She did a good job of coming off of her man and helping at different times,’ Curl said. ‘She was blocking shots when her teammates got beat off the dribble.’
UH also crashed the offensive boards well, grabbing 14 of 36 total rebounds off missed shots.
‘We were very active on the offensive end, which helped us get in better rebounding position,’ Curl said.
UH can lock up a first-round bye in the C-USA Tournament by defeating East Carolina at 1 p.m. Saturday at Minges Coliseum. The Pirates are 6-0 at home against conference foes this season, providing a tough task for the Cougars.
‘We need to play our kind of basketball,’ Curl said. ‘They are very tough at home, but they have shown that they are beatable. We’ll go in there and give them the best we got.’
