UH guard Julia Blackshell-Fair (23) watches as ECU brings the ball up the floor during 2019-20 season. In the loss to Alabama on Sunday, she had 12 points on 5/9 shooting. | Jiselle Santos/The Cougar
After cruising past Oklahoma in its season opener, Houston could not overcome Alabama’s offensive onslaught on Sunday afternoon as the Cougars dropped the game 88-66.
Throughout the first half, the game was like a seesaw, but head coach Ronald Hughey felt that the contest slipped through their fingertips when the team “got frustrated,” which led to his players starting to play as individuals.
Early in the game, however, the Cougars moved the ball a lot. UH was in an early groove when fifth-year guard Eryka Sidney and sophomore Britney Onyeje got the momentum flowing with back-to-back 3-pointers to put UH up by five.
But, the Cougars were quickly hampered by foul trouble, a problem Hughey said his team also had on Wednesday against Oklahoma, and that helped the Crimson Tide create an eight-point lead halfway through the second quarter.
This proved to be an issue throughout the entire game as Alabama earned 32 points from the free-throw line compared to UH’s eight.
“We started fouling again,” Hughey said. “When you talk about the last two games, we fouled more than 50 times.”
After trailing by six at halftime, the Cougars came out re-energized with a quick four points from junior forward Tatyana Hill, along with two pointers from junior guards Daphane White and Ca’Leyah Burrell and sophomore Miya Crump.
This offensive spurt shrunk the Crimson Tide’s lead to only three, as the Cougars were able to keep the Crimson Tide within reach, but UH began dwindling in its efficiency to put up shots later on.
In the game against Oklahoma, Houston shot over 43 percent from the field, but against Alabama, the Cougars struggled as they shot just a little over 36 percent.
“We didn’t shoot the ball as well because we didn’t get up a number of attempts, we only had about 70 shots,” Hughey said.
But the team also had missteps on defense.
“We didn’t rotate and we didn’t rebound,” said senior guard Julia Blackshell-Fair, who put up 12 points and six rebounds in the loss. “… We’re staying too glued to our man instead of being in ‘help’ defense, and that’s allowing the teams to get straight-line drives. We need to be better defenders than that.”
Both Hughey and Blackshell-Fair, however, enjoyed the challenge that Alabama gave UH. They believe their team will only benefit from competing against the tougher schools in the nation.
“It was a good lesson for us today, we played a Big 12 team. We’ll have two SEC opponents,” Hughey said. “Those games will get you prepared for the American Conference (and) that’s what we’re looking forward to.”
