Houston women’s basketball Head Coach Ronald Hughey rests his head in his hand during the second half of an NCAA college women’s basketball game, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025 in Houston, Texas. | Raphael Fernandez/The Cougar
Houston women’s basketball endured a crushing 92-47 defeat against Baylor on Wednesday, marking the Cougars’ worst defensive performance of the season allowing a season-high 92 points.
The Cougars continue to deal with adversity this season as they only had six available players for this matchup.
“It is admirable what they are doing and how hard they fight,” Baylor’s coach Nicki Collen said. “I had seven players my first year here and understand what they are going through.”
The Bears stormed out to a quick 7-0 lead led by junior guard Darianna Littlepage-Buggs with back-to-back layups and a 3-point jumper by senior guard Sarah Andrews.
The Cougars landed their first points with a layup from redshirt sophomore guard Gigi Cooke off of a turnover, bringing the score to 7-2.
With 1:34 remaining in the first quarter, graduate guard Laila Blair hit a step-back 3-point jumper to put Houston within one point of the Bears, 14-13.
Despite a promising start, Houston was quickly overrun by the Bears, who dominated both offensively and defensively, outscoring the Cougars by 44 points after the first quarter.
Trouble began in the second quarter as the Cougars were outscored 24-9.
Graduate guard Eylia Love made a jumper and later a layup to give Houston over half of their points in the quarter.
To close the half, Baylor made three consecutive 3-point jumpers to go into halftime with a 38-22 lead.
The second-half wasn’t any better for UH as the Bears outscored Houston 54-25.
The Bears shot 45.8% from behind the arc and rattled in 11 3-point jumpers compared to Houston’s 11.1% with only two 3-point jumpers made.
Houston shot just 31% from the field, while Baylor shot 58%.
Baylor also grabbed 20 more rebounds and recorded 24 more assists than UH.
Littlepage-Buggs was the star tonight for Baylor and ended the game with 19 points, six assists and seven rebounds.
Senior guard Yaya Felder played a huge role off the bench and tallied 15 points and eight assists.
Senior guard Jada Walker followed in scoring with 14 points. She also added five assists, two rebounds and a steal to her stat line.
Merchant was a spark defensively as she recorded five steals. She also added 13 points and six rebounds.
Love also scored 13 points and added an assist and six rebounds.
“At the end of the day it is still five-on-five basketball,” coach Ronald Hughey said. “My team is prepared and knows what to do, we just have to execute.”
With the loss, the Cougars remain at the bottom of the Big 12 with a 1-11 conference record and are 5-18 overall.
