Saturday's Sports Update: Women's basketball falls to UH

By Yan Digilov     2/5/09 6:00pm

The women's basketball team made the short trip across town to the University of Houston today for part-two of their cross-town rivalry, in which they were looking to avenge a hard-fought loss at Tudor Fieldhouse on Wednesday. The two teams came out with strikingly different demeanors. While the Owls could not make more than a single bucket in the first six minutes of the game, the Cougs put up an easy 14. Houston accumulated a 14-point lead at 23-9, their largest of the game, with eight minutes left in the half.

But Rice head coach Greg Williams would not let his team roll over that early in the game. The Owls began interchanging a half court press and two-man trap and were able to throw Houston out of a rhythm. Rice worked themselves back into the game as their offense began taking better shots underneath the basket.

Freshman Brianna Hypolite, who finished the game with eight points, took a digit off the off the lead with a three-pointer to make it 27-18 with over five minutes left in the half. Rice got as close as eight before the end of the half, but UH sophomore center Cobilyn Hill kept scoring with little opposition. She finished the night with 26 points. The Cougars went in at halftime with a 33-23 lead.

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"We tried to tell them at halftime that we are down ten, and we shot only 32 percent from the field, got out-rebounded by fourteen, and shot 32 percent from the line," Williams said. "We are only down ten."

The squads played almost even for the first ten minutes of the second half. Freshman center Candace Ashford, who finished with three points and two rebounds, brought the lead back to eight at one point with a three pointer, but the Owls could not find an answer for Hill.

The Cougars also adjusted to the full court press, which became less of a turnover opportunity for the Owls than a chance for Houston to make an open shot from close range. By the eight-minute marker, the felines built up a 15-point, 55-40 lead.

Rice continued to slip behind for the rest of the match and finished down by 20, by a score of 70-50.

"Overall, the score tells it all," freshman point guard D'Frantz Smart said. "We got beat on the glass. We got beat on offensive rebounds. We missed free throws, and we couldn't make a basket. If you can't make a basket and you cant make a rebound, you will probably lose every time.

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