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Lady Coogs finish on top

Win over TCU clinches C-USA title, UH's first women's basketball championship

by Christian Schmidt
The Daily Cougar

It couldn't happen twice, could it? The Lady Horned Frogs must have had déjà vu as they watched a nine-point halftime deficit melt away. The Lady Cougars notched a second victory this season over their in-state rivals Friday at Hofheinz Pavilion, winning 76-71.

Horatio McForest/The Daily Cougar 

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Seniors Chandi Jones (left), Amanda Barksdale and Nicole Oliver could find no better way to celebrate Senior Day on Friday than to win UH's first conference championship.

"I didn't have anything to do with that. The kids won that thing. They reached down in their guts at halftime. There was no fussing at halftime -- there were some angry situations." Houston head coach Joe Curl said. "If we were going to have a chance, we were going to have to dig down."

UH dug down.

With the win, Houston (24-3 overall, 13-1 in Conference USA) secured the first conference championship in the program's history. Texas Christian (22-5, 11-3) blew a chance to share the regular-season crown and become the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, which begins Thursday in Fort Worth.

Houston struggled in the early going and never had a lead in the first half. A three-pointer by senior forward Tiffany Evans gave TCU a 26-14 lead, tying the largest lead the Lady Horned Frogs would have in the game.

TCU shot 55.2 percent from the field in the first half and limited Houston to just 33.3 percent shooting. The Lady Horned Frogs also won the rebounding battle, grabbing 23 boards to UH's 16.

"I felt like at halftime, we played really well in the first half, but I felt like we missed some opportunities to extend that lead into double digits," TCU head coach Jeff Mittie said. "Houston put some good pressure on us in the second half, and we just did not handle that well."

The second half was, indeed, a different story. Houston raised its defensive intensity, putting more pressure on TCU's ballhandlers while double-teaming Horned Frog junior center Sandora Irvin nearly every time she got the ball.

A 7-0 run closed the gap to just three points at 47-50 with 11 minutes, 37 seconds remaining in the game. Two minutes later, a three-pointer by senior guard Nicole Oliver tied the game at 54. The Lady Cougars retook the lead for good on a jumper by Sancho Lyttle with 7:44 left to go.

Ultimately, it was TCU's turnovers -- 34 to Houston's 19 -- and inability to get to the free-throw line that gave the Lady Cougars the victory. Houston was 28-for-41 from the free-throw line; TCU was 13-19.

"At halftime, we were down," senior guard Chandi Jones said. "We all know that as a team, once we're behind in the second half, we have to come out better than we did in the first half or we're going to lose. We didn't want to lose tonight."

Jones led the way for Houston, scoring 26 points and adding five rebounds, four assists and four steals. 

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