Houston women’s basketball fell on Sunday afternoon to No. 13 Baylor despite a promising first half showing. | Emma Christensen /The Cougar
The UH women’s basketball team came up short against No. 13 Baylor on Sunday afternoon at Fertitta Center 83-60 to drop to 12-10 on the season and 3-8 in the Big 12.
The Cougars and Bears went basket-for-basket to start the game though Baylor eventually grew a 17-9 lead.
Later graduate guards Brittany Onjeye and N’Yah Boyd each hit a three to cut it to 19-17.
At the end of the first quarter the Cougars trailed Baylor by a score of 21-17.
Shortly out of the second quarter gate senior guard Laila Blair tied the game up and later sophomore forward Logyn McNeil scored a layup to take the lead at 27-26.
Despite UH’s positive stretch, Baylor had answers and retook the lead shortly thereafter.
Yaya Felder of the Bears made a shot in the paint and a three-pointer with around one minute to go in the first half to extend Baylor’s lead.
Houston trailed 37-29 at halftime.
Senior forward Peyton McFarland made a couple buckets to start the second half for the Cougars.
Baylor continued to add on to its lead, up by 14 points halfway through the third quarter.
Back-to-back threes from Blair and graduate forward Bria Patterson cut the UH deficit back down to ten points.
The Bears extended their lead at the end of the frame with a 6-0 run to enter the final quarter in firm control 58-43.
Onjeye hit a three to start the fourth quarter but Baylor continued to answer back, growing a 69-50 lead and forcing a Houston timeout.
The Bears went on to win by a final score of 83-60.
Blair was the leading scorer for the Cougars, scoring 14 points.
Houston shot just 31% from the field. Though UH forced 26 turnovers it was not enough as the Cougars got outnumbered in both total rebounds and points in the paint.
UH head coach Ronald Hughey spoke postgame of not being able to finish quarters.
“The second quarter going into the half is where it started to fall off for us,” Hughey said. “We didn’t do that down the stretch. At the end of the day, toss it and move on to the next one.”
UH will look to rebound on the road in Lawrence, Kansas against the Jayhawks on Thursday night.
