Senior guard Roxana Button and Porsche Landry are the only two returning rotation players for the Cougars. Button led UH with 22 points on Monday. | Joshua Siegel/The Daily Cougar
A Porsche-less Cougar squad picked up a 65-41 win over St. Thomas.
The Cougars did battle without their star point guard, Landry, who is day-to-day after getting hit in the head in a scrimmage against Texas A&M last weekend.
Despite the win, the results were mixed for UH.
The Cougars forced 28 turnovers with their full-court press, but also turned the ball over 15 times themselves.
“I thought our execution was kind of on-and-off,” head coach Todd Buchannan said. “Honestly, most anybody at Nov. 7, any coach would say there’s a lack of consistency and we were the epitome of.”
Without Landry, much of the ball-handling duties fell to senior Roxana Button and freshman Mileka Loydrake.
Button led UH with 22 points, grabbed eight rebounds, and did not turn the ball over.
Loydrake totaled four assists against one turnover in her debut for UH, and brought energy that Buchannan thought was lacking from other players.
“A lot of my disappoint at halftime was that I didn’t think we played very hard,” Buchannan said.
The Cougars looked overwhelmed at times by Celts center Sheila Onyekwere, who finished with 16 rebounds.
Terran Alford provided energy inside the post off of the bench with nine points, seven rebounds and three blocks.
“I think that she was really bright star in the sky tonight as far as when I was looking up and looking on the floor,” Buchannan said.
Buchannan said that Landry’s status for Friday’s season opener remained day-to-day.
“Playing without P was definitely weird,” Button said.
“I thought we did some good things with the press, but we also have a lot to work on. We’re going to get back at it this week and get ready for New Mexico State on Friday.”
