Sports Women's Basketball

UH women’s basketball falls on the road to USF

Senior guard Julia Blackshell-Fair finished the game with 6 points. | Sean Thomas/The Cougar

Senior guard Julia Blackshell-Fair finished the game with 6 points. | Sean Thomas/The Cougar

The UH women’s basketball team dropped its sixth consecutive game in conference play with a 55-35 road loss to USF.

The Cougars now fall to 9-11 overall on the year and 2-6 in the American Athletic Conference standings as they lose ground on hopes of contending for a high seed for the conference tournament.

In the first quarter, both teams struggled to gain an advantage over the other as they combined for 10 turnovers throughout the period.

The Bulls pulled away to a 9-4 lead before the Cougars cut the deficit to 9-7 at the end of the first quarter.

To open the second quarter, USF rode a 6-0 run to extend its lead to 15-7 and force a UH timeout.

The Cougars came out of the timeout with some offensive rhythm as they managed to get on the board in the second quarter and create some balance on both ends of the court.

Despite a more competitive second quarter, the Bulls managed to pull away to a 23-16 lead at the half.

The third quarter proved to be the deciding factor for the game with USF firing on all cylinders.

Through 7:36, the Bulls powered through and never looked back, outscoring the Cougars 19-4 and stretching their lead to 42-20 while forcing another UH timeout.

At the end of the third quarter, USF outscored UH 23-6 and widened the gap offensively, outshooting the Cougars 50 percent to 17 percent.

In the fourth quarter, the Cougars dished out a last-minute effort to cut the deficit with a 9-4 run midway through the period to trail 50-31.

USF proved to be too much for UH to handle in the second half as it capitalized on the Cougars’ mistakes and created opportunities to put the game away with a quarter left to play.

Sophomore guard Laila Blair led the Cougars in scoring on the day with eight points while also tallying two rebounds and two assists.

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