Wrecking Reckling

UH C-USA Men's Notebook

Women's Hoops

Jesse Lauritz

The Lady Cougars suffered a pair of Conference USA losses this weekend to University of Alabama-Birmingham and the Lady Tigers of Memphis.

On Friday, UH lost to the Lady Blazers of UAB 79-65. The Lady Cougars played excellent defense in the first half, trailing by only a close margin of five at halftime.

However, in the second half, UAB turned it up and converted some quick turnovers by UH. UAB junior Mia Thrash scored 25 points, while sophomore teammate Deanna Jackson led all scorers with 28 points.

"Jackson is as good as any basketball player in our league," UH head coach Joe Curl said.

The Lady Cougars were led by Cathy Lida who had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Jessica Shanklin and Angela Curl each had two three-pointers as they scored 16 points and 12 points, respectively.

On Sunday, the Lady Cougar defense was no match compared to that of Memphis, as full court presses and traps caused 26 UH turnovers that turned into easy baskets for the Lady Tigers.

Another thorn in the side for the Lady Cougars was Malissa Bush. She scored a game high 20 points, with most of her field goal attempts coming from only two feet away from the basket.

The Lady Cougars' next game is Thursday against No. 25 Tulane in New Orleans. They will also be on the road against Southern Mississippi on Saturday and won't be home until February 18 against the Lady Bearcats of Cincinnati.

Conference USA Player of Week

Forward Lisa Oldenburg of Marquette was named the C-USA Player of the Week after leading her team to a pair of victories over Southern Mississippi and Tulane.

The senior scored a game high 27 points and pulled down seven rebounds against Southern Miss, while against Tulane she added a 17 point effort and again grabbed seven rebounds.

The victory was sweet for Marquette as they ended No. 21 Tulane's 18-game home winning streak. Oldenburg's stats for the week were 22 points and seven rebounds per game.

Still on top

The Lady Huskies of Connecticut can not be stopped. Oh, wait, yes they can. No. 1 UConn suffered its first loss of the season to the Lady Vols of Tennessee, 72-71. However, the Huskies still remained on top of the Associated Press women's basketball poll, where they have resided all season long.

The Lady Huskies' lead is only 41 points over Tennessee, which jumped past Georgia and Louisiana Tech into the No. 2 spot. Tennessee received six first place votes and 1,032 points.

Georgia held on to third with 10 first-place votes, Louisiana Tech dropped from second to fourth despite winning three games by an average of over 40 points.

The rest of the top 10 and poll remained quite the same. Notre Dame was fifth and Penn State sixth, with LSU, Iowa State, Texas Tech and Rutgers rounding out the rest of the top 10.

North Carolina State might still be at No. 11, but they will have to play the rest of the regular season without center Summer Erb.

Erb broke two bones in her left foot in the final minute of the team's win over North Carolina last Thursday.

C-USA powerhouse Tulane dropped from No. 21 to the bottom of the poll after losing to Lady Golden Eagles of Marquette. Stanford re-entered the poll at No. 24 because of Illinois' loss to Michigan.