Tulsa Women Fall at Home to Houston 65-62

Wednesday, February 15

Reynolds Center

7:00 pm

Tulsa

8-18 (4-9AAC)

Houston

10-16 (3-10AAC)

Houston

Tulsa

Tulsa Women Fall at Home to Houston 65-62

2/15/2017 9:28:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Don Tomkalski

BOX SCORE PDF I BOX SCORE HTML I SEASON STATS

Freshman Kendrian Elliott had her fourth double-double with 18 points and 15 rebounds, but it wasn't enough as Tulsa (8-18, 4-9 American) fell by a score of 65-62 to the Houston Cougars (10-16, 3-10 American) Wednesday night in front of 391 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Liesl Spoerl added 10 points and eight rebounds for Tulsa, as the Hurricane shot just 33-percent from the field and 21-percent from three-point range. The Cougars were led by Jacqueline Blake's 22 points, leading three Houston players in double figures.

The Hurricane had 19 offensive rebounds and 38 for the game to out-rebound the Cougars by three. Tulsa also had just 12 turnovers, while the Hurricane scored 19 points off of 19 Houston turnovers.

"We hung with Houston on the boards, but they shot better than usual and we didn't shoot very well so a combination of them shooting almost 50-percent and us shooting 32-percent makes a huge difference. I thought we rebounded well and we had open shots," said Tulsa Head Coach Matilda Mossman.

"Kendrian was good offensively and defensively, and Liesl was two rebounds away from a double-double, but they were the only ones rebounding," added Mossman.

Houston overcame a one-point halftime deficit and took a 53-50 lead into the final quarter of play. Tulsa knotted the score at 53 and again at 55 before taking a three-point lead, 58-55, when Tatyana Perez knocked down a three-pointer at the 6:33 mark. The Hurricane was stuck on 58 points for the next four minutes, as Houston took a 62-58 lead with less than two minutes remaining.

Tulsa had an opportunity late to tie the score with the Cougars ahead by three points at the 0:16 mark. However, Ebony Parker's heavily-contested three-point shot went astray as Houston held on for the victory.

Both teams scored just 12 points in the fourth quarter for the lowest scoring period for both teams.

Tulsa came out of the locker room after halftime and scored the first five points to take a 41-35 lead with 8:35 to play. Houston cut the lead to one point, 45-44, at the 5:29 mark, and tied the score at 48 with 3:03 on the clock. The Cougars closed out the period on a 5-2 run for a 53-50 lead after three quarters.

Tulsa jumped out to a 4-2 lead, before the Cougars took the lead at 5-4 and held the advantage for the remainder of the quarter, building its lead to as many as eight points, 17-9, with 1:56 remaining. Houston shot 53-percent from the field and took a 20-15 lead after one period, as the Hurricane was 0-of-6 from three point range and shot just 33-percent overall from the field.

The Hurricane scored the first six points in the second quarter to take a 21-20 lead, as Jessica Pongonis scored on a layup and Alexis Gaulden followed with two straight layups for the one-point Tulsa lead. Houston re-took the lead by scoring the next six points, making the score 26-21.

Spoerl's three-pointer tied the score at 29 with 4:04 to play, and after two more ties in the quarter, the Hurricane took a 36-31 lead on Wakefield's layup at the 2:09 mark. The Cougars out-scored Tulsa 4-0 over the final two minutes as the half ended with Tulsa leading by one point, 36-35.

Tulsa was led by Elliott's 14 points and seven rebounds and Spoerl was next with eight points and five rebounds in the first half. The Hurricane had a 17-2 advantage in points off turnovers and a 24-12 edge for points scored in the paint. The Cougars shot 54-percent from the field and 44-percent from behind the arc for the half.

Tulsa goes on the road this Saturday to Dallas, Texas, for an afternoon game against the SMU Mustangs. The Hurricane returns to the Reynolds Center on Saturday, Feb. 25, to close out the home schedule against the USF Bulls.