Coogs Thump Knights

HOUSTON, TX (Hofheinz Pavilion) -- The Houston Cougars thumped the UCF Knights 80 to 65 in front of a truly sparse 465 fans inside Hofheinz Pavilion. Perhaps the UH administration; students; and alums stayed home to watch the game on FSN Houston. If they watched the game on television they saw UH improve to a perfect 9 and 0 at home and knock UCF out of a first place tie in the Conference USA standings.

Houston's Courtney Taylor was spectacular once again for the Coogs. Taylor scored a career-high 27 points (10 for 13 from the field, 6 for 8 on free throws); blocked four shots; pulled down seven rebounds; dished two assists; and picked up one steal to lead UH to the solid victory.

Houston (12-6 overall, 4-2 in C-USA) trailed UCF 12 to 9 at the 14:28 mark of the first half; but, a 29 to 8 scoring blitz by the Coogs put UH ahead 38 to 18 with 4:40 left in the half. Taylor's three-point basket capped off the run. Seven different Cougars scored during the run.

"I think we played a good game," Taylor said after the game. "We knew we had to come out and win this game since we lost on the road (to Southern Miss on January 22). I think we got the job done; and, we're still trying to go perfect at home. Everybody played their role. We did what we had to do."

The Coogs led UCF 45 to 28 at the half. Houston forced the Knights (6-13 overall, 4-2 in C-USA) into 16 first half turnovers and outscored the Knights 28 to 4 in points off turnovers in the opening 20 minutes.

"We played as well as we've played defensively that first half," said UH head coach Joe Curl. "We always talk about focus and tunnel vision for each four-minute segment and we were winning each of them by two or three points until we had a big spurt that put us up 17 at halftime. During the second half we knew they would come out and throw their best haymaker at us in the first four minutes. But, we won that first four minutes 8-2 and took a little more out of them. They started to play a little desperate, and we relaxed a little. We've got to play for 40 minutes and if we do, we're capable of winning Conference USA, but it's not going to be easy."

UCF turned up the defensive pressure early in the second half and Houston got sloppy with the basketball and committed eight turnovers in the first eight minutes of the second stanza. The Knights' Emma Cannon (8 points); Amber Kirkpatrick (15 points); and Angelica Mealing (8 points) combined to score 31  of UCF's 37 second half points; however, UCF never got closer than seven points (70 to 63) in the half.

Sophomore guard Brittney Scott added 16 points (5 for 10 from the field) and freshman guard Roxana Button chipped in 10 points off the bench. Freshman point guard Porsche Landry added nine points; four assists; and five steals. Sophomore forward Brittany Mason grabbed a team-high eight rebounds; blocked two shots; dished two assists; picked off one steal; and added five points.

Nine of Houston's 11 players scored at least two points in the ball game.

"I feel we played a lot better than we had the past couple of games," said sophomore forward Brittany Mason. "We got a couple of runs that first half and that helped us a lot. The second half they had a run; but, we came back and we were able to finish the game."

The Cougars will now hit the road for three straight contests away from Hofheinz Pavilion, beginning on Thursday when they face SMU in Dallas. Tip is set for 7 p.m.