UH Women Ballers Fight For Comeback Win Against Rice

One of the things about playing your rival in any sport at any level of competition is that you throw the records of the two teams out.   If one of the rival teams is trying to accomplish something like make the playoffs, win a conference title or go unbeaten, they will play their hardest just to beat you. 

They want the smirking satisfaction of rubbing it in your face months and years later and reminding you that they were the team that denied you whatever goal you wanted to accomplish.

One of the goals the University of Houston women's team wanted to accomplish in addition to the already secured conference regular season championship was an undefeated C-USA season.  

The fact that we were playing our big rivals was one of the things that went through my mind as I awaited the tipoff of this game againt the Rice Owls at Tudor Fieldhouse. 

It was a team the Cougars spanked at Hofheinz 71-51 back on February 10 but the Owls let the Cougars know they were bringing the Senior Day pain with a 9-0 opening run   For much of the afternoon that UH goal of a perfect conference mark was in jeopardy as the number 25 ranked Cougars faced a 19 point deficit at one point during the first half and were in a 41-27 hole at halftime .           

Thanks to a 24 point effort from reigning C-USA Player of the Year Courtney Taylor and 18 from Porsche Landry the Owls and their alums won't get the satisfaction of rubbing that in our faces.


The Cougars started clawing their way back into the game with an initial 17-7 run that whittled the Owl lead down to 48-44 at the 14:38 mark.   After another Rice run boosted their shrinking lead a run of seven straight points from Courtney Taylor cut the deficit to just 63-60 with 7:17 left in the game.

Porsche Landry's turnaround jumper gave the Cougars their first lead at 69-68 with 1:50 remaining and the Cougars allowed one Owls basket over the final 3:38 of the game to head back to Cullen Boulevard with the  hard fought 74-70 win.

Eat 'em up!


The win extended the school record UH winning streak to 15 games, boosted their record to 24-4 and set them up with the opportunity to become the second C-USA women's team to go unbeaten in the regular season when they face off against Tulane on Saturday night.