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Sports

Still a close battle

C-USA Notebook

by Arie Graham
The Daily Cougar

With Conference USA play officially under way, things are beginning to heat up in the women's basketball bracket. Alabama-Birmingham and Southern Miss are tied for the top spot in the conference standings. UAB was handed its first C-USA loss by Southern Miss on Sunday. In a close second, Texas-El Paso failed to make up ground and had its three-game winning streak snapped in a 70-59 loss to Southern Methodist on Friday. 

UTEP was off to one of its hottest starts in recent years, firing off three consecutive conference wins for the Miners' best start in 33 years. Rounding off the top half of the standings with 3-2 records are Tulane, SMU, Marshall and East Carolina. 

Still, a long road to March Madness remains and any one of these squads can emerge as the top dog. As of right now, it's anybody's guess.

Standout players

Southern Miss sophomore guard Amber Eugene was stellar in her freshman year and has picked up right where she left off. Eugene has been named conference player of the week twice thus far and has put up the fourth-highest scoring average in C-USA at 17.4 points per game. 

Preseason favorite Rice sits in eighth as the Owls make an effort to rebound from a 2-3 conference record. Senior forward Lauren Neaves, Rice's top scorer, returned Jan. 11 after missing four games because of an injury. On the night of her return she became the third player, male or female, in school history to record 1,000 career rebounds.

Senior forward Jillian Robbins, an All-American candidate from Tulsa, has had success on both sides of the court this season. She leads the team in scoring with 19.7 points per game and broke Tulsa's career all-time steals record with 304 on Friday in a 75-62 loss to Tulane. Robbins currently leads C-USA in rebounding, averaging 12.8 per game.

The bottom line

Houston and Rice both have 2-3 records as they have struggled to find consistency. The crosstown rivals will face each other for the second time at 3 p.m. Sunday at Autry Court. The Owls will have revenge on their mind as they look to avenge a 91-86 overtime loss to Houston Jan. 2. 

Defending C-USA champions Tulsa and Central Florida both have only one win apiece in the conference, sitting No. 10 and 11 in the standings, respectively. Memphis is the only team in the conference that has yet to make a mark in the win column. 

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