Jan. 26, 2008

Box Score

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HOUSTON - The University of Houston women's basketball team built an 18-point lead five minutes into the second half and hung on for a 70-64 win over Rice, Saturday in Conference USA action at Sharp Gymnasium on the campus of Houston Baptist University.

Houston (11-9, 5-1 C-USA) led buzzer-to-buzzer, earned its fifth-straight win and took the season sweep over the Owls (8-13, 1-6 C-USA).

"No question it was a big win for us," interim head coach Danny Hughes said. "I thought we were consistent for the whole game and we answered their runs. This isn't an easy gym to play in. It's noisy and it's a rivalry game. We had some players step up and hit some big shots when it counted."

A jumper by Whitney James (Edmond, Okla./Edmond Memorial HS/North Oklahoma College) with 14:03 left gave the Cougars their second 18-point lead of the night.

Rice was able to whittle the margin down thanks to two four-minute spans where Houston did not sink a field goal. Down the stretch, Houston answered every run with timely buckets of its own.

After a layup by Tara Watts with 4:41 left pulled Rice to within six, 55-49, James knocked down a wide-open three to move the lead back to nine.

With 1:31 left, Morgan Mayse laid one in to bring Rice within five at 60-55. On UH's next possession, Tye Jackson (Houston, Texas/Westfield HS/Purdue) drove the lane and laid one off the glass and in to put the Cougars up 62-55 with 1:12 to go.

The Owls would not go away and hit their first two three pointers of the game in the final minute, pulling within four with seven seconds to go. A pair of free throws by Jackson iced the game. Rice finished the game 2-for-14 (.143) from behind the arc.

Jackson led the Cougars with 15 points while also dishing out eight assists.

Twiggy McIntyre (Sapulpa, Okla./Sapulpa HS/Kansas State) finished with 10 points, five steals, four assists and three rebounds.

James finished with a season-high 14 points and Courtney Taylor (Crockett, Texas/Crockett HS) also added 14 along with seven rebounds.

Cobilyn Hill (Houston, Texas/Eisenhower HS) was dominant defensively, blocking five shots and grabbing four rebounds before fouling out. The 6-3 freshman was in foul trouble all day and was limited to just 11 minutes.

UH was up 34-23 at the break after shooting at a 50-percent clip (14-28) in the opening 20 minutes. The Cougars held Rice to a 9-for-31 effort from the field in the half and forced 10 turnovers.

Kadie Riverin tallied 13 of her game-high-tying 17 points in the second half. Tiffany Watts came off the bench to add 17 while Tara Watts added 14. Morgan Mayse had a game-high nine rebounds.

Houston continues a three-game road trip next weekend, taking on Memphis at 7 p.m. CST Friday and UAB at 2 p.m. Sunday. UH will play six of its next eight games on the road.

Fans can listen to a free internet radio broadcast of all UH games this year by clicking on the Stretch Internet Broadcast link at UHCougars.com. Streaming video for all home games will also be made available through the All-Access package at UHCougars.com.