Most people spend their birthdays blowing out candle-laden cakes and opening presents with family and friends who sing the birthday song embarrassingly off-key.
UH’s Brittney Scott celebrated her 21st birthday and “Hoops for the Cure” by scoring a game-high 19 points to lead the Cougars to a 68-62 win over Memphis on Sunday at Hofheinz Pavilion.
Scott shot 8-of-15 from the field to help the Cougars improve to 12-10 overall and 6-3 in Conference USA. The Orange native also added five rebounds and three assists while running the point in place of the injured Porsche Landry.
“I didn’t play well just because it was my birthday,” Scott said. “With Porsche hurt, I knew I had to step it up.”
Junior forward Courtney Taylor got the same memo, finishing with 12 points and 10 rebounds, which enabled her to move ahead of Sancho Lyttle for the school record for career double-doubles with 36.
“Her breaking the record is one of the biggest achievements as a college player,” UH head coach Joe Curl said. “And the admiration I have for the player she passed, Sancho Lyttle, who was a WNBA draft pick, says a lot about how I feel about Courtney getting that record.”
Lesslee Mason added 15 points and nine rebounds for UH, which moved into a tie atop the C-USA standings with Memphis (13-8, 6-3) and Tulane. Brittany Carter led Memphis with 17 points, and LaToya Bullard had 14.
Led by Scott, the Lady Cougars capped a 26-11 run with back-to-back 3-pointers from sophomore Roxana Button in the first half. The high-scoring Tigers then closed the gap to six on an array of jumpers with five minutes remaining in the half.
Both teams scored nine points the rest of the way, before heading to the locker rooms with UH up 35-29.
The Cougars were on fire to start the second half, jumping out to a 61-43 lead after Scott made an eye-popping entry pass to Brittany Mason for the easy layup with 6:28 remaining.
UH started to show cracks in its armor, allowing the Tigers to come roaring back down the stretch. Memphis rode the play of Bullard, who scored 10 of the Tigers’ next 13 points. With one minute to play, Memphis had reduced the Cougars’ lead to 64-60.
Alex Winchell missed a 3-pointer from the wing that would have cemented the Tigers’ comeback with 20 seconds remaining, but Brittany Mason got the rebound and was immediately fouled. She iced two high-pressure free throws on the other end to push the Cougars’ lead to four six with 15 seconds left.
Fittingly, it was Scott who came up with a loose ball in the waning moments and scored on a layup to seal the win.
Next up for UH is a matchup against Tulsa at 7 p.m. Friday in Tulsa, Okla.
