Senior forward Courtney Taylor continued her stellar season, contributing 13 points and 14 rebounds for her 14th double-double of the season and 54th of her career. She also made her presence felt on the defensive end, with two steals and one block. | Aaron Cisneros/The Daily Cougar
The streak continues for the Cougars, as they pulled out a thrilling come-from-behind victory in the final seconds to beat SMU 72-67 at Hofheinz Pavilion. The Cougars faced a six-point deficit with 38 seconds, but willed themselves to an improbable win.
The Cougars (17-4, 8-0 Conference USA) have now gone eight games without a loss and remain undefeated in C-USA.
“Words cannot describe how proud I am of our kids,” head coach Todd Buchannan said. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, and that’s just incredible 30 seconds to a minute of basketball as I’ve ever been associated with.”
The Cougars went on an 11-0 run in the final 38 seconds to finish the comeback.
“The game is never over until it’s really over — until there is not time on the clock,” Lesslee Mason said. “We had some downfalls in the game, but we came through.
“We kept playing hard and making good decisions at the end of the game — and we came out with the win.”
Brittney Scott was the catalyst for the comeback, hitting two 3-pointers in a span of 12 seconds to tie the game at 67 with 15 seconds remaining.
“Both of them didn’t feel like they were off,” Scott said. “They both felt good and I shot it unconsciously; I didn’t think about it.”
On the ensuing inbounds pass, Mason stole the ball and found a wide open Brittany Mason.
Mason was fouled on the play and went to the free-throw line where she calmly hit both shots.
“Her free throws were amazing,” Buchannan said. “To have that kind of mentality and that kind of heart to miss, come back and knock them down — that’s championship basketball in its finest hour.”
The Cougars were pesky on the defensive end, with a combined 13 steals and eight blocked shots.
“I want to be aggressive defensively,” Buchannan said. “And we’re going to have to pick our spots sometimes and I feel like we did that today.”
The Cougars starters all scored in double figures with Porsche Landry leading the way with 16. Courtney Taylor recorded another double-double, scoring 13 points and grabbing 14 rebounds.
The Cougars will travel to Tulane on Feb. 6 before returning home for a Feb. 10 rivalry matchup against Rice.
