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Strong Second Half Lifts Women's Basketball Past Marshall, 71-63
Jan. 20, 2013
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - The University of Houston women's basketball team overcame a slow start to race past Marshall by a score of 71-63 on Sunday afternoon at Cam Henderson Center. The Cougars claimed their first road victory of the season to improve to 8-8 overall and 2-1 in Conference USA play. Senior guard Porsche Landry led three Cougars in double figures with a game-high 24 points and five assists, while junior forwards Marissa Ashton (17 points, 11 rebounds) and Te'onna Campbell (14 points, 12 rebounds) each posted double-doubles. The Cougars struggled early, falling behind by a score of 19-9 in the opening 10 minutes after back-to-back Marshall 3-pointers. After Houston converted seven-straight free throws to snap a five-minute scoring skid, Landry knocked down a jumper for Houston's first field goal in over eight minutes to trim the Marshall advantage to three points with under five minutes to play before the intermission. The Thundering Herd (6-11, 0-4) pushed back out to a nine-point advantage with 1:23 remaining before Landry buried her second trey of the half and followed with a dish to Ashton for a 3-point play. Freshman guard Jessieka Palmer drove the lane for a layup to put the Cougars within one point with 11.5 seconds left, but Marshall's Orlandria Williams answered with a layup at the buzzer for the 3-point halftime advantage. After struggling to get over the hump in the opening seven minutes of the second half, the Cougars finally broke through, executing an inbounds play perfectly as Ashton posted an easy layup to tie the contest at 41-41. With just over eight minutes remaining, Ashton pulled down an offensive rebound and converted the putback to give the Cougars their first lead since the opening moments of the game at 47-46. The two teams would trade the lead down the stretch, and Marshall erased a three-point advantage with a 3-point play to knot the contest back up with only 3:20 left to play. The Cougars would take the lead for good when freshman guard Marche' Amerson drove the lane for a layup with 3:03 remaining, and Campbell followed with a steal which led to a 3-point play for Landry to give Houston a 63-58 lead. Campbell then sank a dagger, draining her first 3-pointer of the season as the shot clock expired to give the Cougars an eight-point lead with just 1:42 left to play. Marshall would answer with a trifecta on the next trip down, but Landry put the contest on ice with two shots from the charity stripe with just over a minute remaining. Landry was on target all afternoon, going 7-of-12 from the field, including a 2-of-3 mark from distance, and an 8-of-9 effort from the charity stripe. Ashton was also hot from the field, connecting on six of 12 shots while setting a career high with four free-throws on five attempts. Junior forward Yasmeen Thompson collected 10 boards to go with five points and two steals, marking the fourth-straight game with double-digit rebounds. Amerson added seven points in the victory, including four crucial points in the final four minutes. After shooting 27 percent (8-of-30) in the first half and just 17 percent (4-of-23) in the opening 16 minutes, the Cougars caught fire with a 52-percent (14-of-27) effort in the second half. The Cougars edged the Herd in the rebound battle by a 41-40 margin, while forcing 24 turnovers and swiping 15 steals. Houston returns to action against Southern Miss at 7 p.m., Thursday at Hofheinz Pavilion. NOTES
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