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Lady Coogs win with defense

UH wins low-scoring game behind solid defense, excellent free-throw shooting

By Christian Schmidt
The Daily Cougar

It was an ugly win, but that doesn't matter to the Lady Cougars, who secured their 17th victory this season and sixth in Conference USA play with a 48-39 win over Alabama-Birmingham.

Houston (17-3 overall, 6-1 C-USA) was held to just 27.5 percent shooting from the floor by UAB (7-14, 1-7), but the Lady Cougars used the free-throw line to their advantage, hitting 17 of their 24 shots from the foul line. The Lady Blazers were 3-for-9 from the charity stripe.

For the second consecutive game, UH trailed at halftime but stormed back in the second half to win. And for the second consecutive game, Houston's opponent made more shots and had more rebounds than the Lady Cougars, but UH used the free-throw line to win the game.

The Lady Cougars struggled against the UAB zone defense in the first half, connecting on a mere 19.2 percent of their attempts. Senior guard Chandi Jones made just 2-of-13 shots in the first half.

Houston struggled even more from behind the arc, hitting on only 3-of-14 attempts from behind the three-point line in the game.

UH came back in the second half, scoring 32 points and limiting the Lady Blazers to 19 with a smothering defense sparked by Jones, who had six steals in the game. UAB had 24 turnovers in the game that Houston turned into 21 points.

Cougar junior point guard Joann Overstreet hit a free-throw to give Houston a 36-35 lead, and the Lady Cougars never trailed again.

UAB's 39 points were the fewest the team has scored this season.

Jones scored a game-high 22 points including nine points from free-throws. She led all players in rebounds with 10 and steals with six and chipped in three blocked shots.

Junior center Kiki Harris started for the only second time this season in relief of senior Amanda Barksdale, who has started 18 of the Cougars' 20 games this season. Harris, Barksdale and junior forward Sancho Lyttle used their size to intimidate the Blazers on the inside as UH had nine blocks in the game.

Freshman guard Carmen Guzman ignited the Lady Blazers with 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting, four assists and three steals.

Houston returns to the court against Southern Miss at 7 p.m. Friday and Tulane at 1 p.m. Sunday. Both games are at Hofheinz Pavilion.

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