A short-handed Cougars squad fell 79-53 to Louisiana Tech on Wednesday at Hofheinz Pavilion.
The Cougars played with an active roster of eight and without a true point guard with leading scorer Porsche Landry (22.0 ppg) out with a head injury, and Mileka Loydrake (12 points, four steals against UTSA) missing time with knee problems.
The Cougars stumbled out of the gate after senior guard Roxana Button picked up two early fouls and went into the half trailing 36-20.
“Anytime you get yourself in a hole like that, it’s tremendously hard to come back,” Button said. “But I was pleased with our energy and effort in the second half. We didn’t just lie down and quit. Obviously we have room for improvement, but we stuck together as a team and didn’t quit.”
The Cougars showed a stronger effort on offense in the second half, shooting 42.3 percent from the field and only turning the ball over only six times, and were able to pull within 12 points, but an inability to get stops on defense prevented the Cougars from piecing together more significant runs.
“Not communicating, not talking enough, that’s what it comes down to,” freshman guard Tahlia Pope said.
Pope scored 11 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Cougars, but was also 5-11 from the free throw line and committed seven turnovers.
“It’s pretty hard when you don’t have a true point guard on the floor, somebody that can relieve the pressure from the shooters,” Pope said. “It’s pretty hard, but we’re just going to have to find a way.
“I was more aggressive. More responsibility was put on me since Rox got into foul trouble.”
After playing just four minutes in the first half and going scoreless in the first half, Button tied freshman guard Danielle Parks with a team-high 12 points.
Despite more than doubling the Bulldogs with 28 free-throw attempts, the Cougars hit on only half of their tries. The Bulldogs (3-6) connected on 9-11 free-throw attempts.
Sophomore center Mae Woods scored eight points and collected four rebounds in 22 minutes for UH.
The Cougars’ search for their first win of the season continues at 2 p.m. Saturday at Hofheinz Pavilion against Houston Baptist, who is also 0-9.