Thursday, December 16
Houston 78, Florida State 68
Laila Blair and the Cougars showered Florida State with 13 3-pointers in a 78-68 win on Thursday night in the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center.
Blair led all scorers with 20 points, including tying her career-high six 3-pointers while also adding six rebounds and six assists. Blair foreshadowed a 3-point showdown for the Cougars (6-5), scoring five straight treys in the first quarter. The Cougars' 13 3-pointers marked the second-highest in program history.
Bria Patterson and Britney Onyeje added 13 points each, also connecting on three 3-pointers apiece while Dymond Gladney added one. Patterson added four rebounds while Onyeje tallied five and Gladney contributed seven assists.
Patterson opened the game with a trey of her own and the Cougars took a 7-5 lead on a Tiara jumper. Three straight 3-pointers from Blair pushed Houston to a five-point lead at 19-14 before the Cougars closed the quarter with another Blair trey to make the score 22-18.
Gladney pushed Houston's lead to 24-18 to open the second quarter. However, the Seminoles fought back scoring seven straight points to go ahead 27-26. But a jumper from Kamryn Jones and a 3-pointer from Onyeje gave Houston the lead again at 31-29. The Cougars closed the half with a trey from Onyeje and a layup from Tamara Nard to maintain the lead going into halftime 39-36.
Another 3-pointer from Patterson started the third quarter and pushed the Cougars to a 42-36 lead. But, Florida State held the Cougars scoreless going on an 11-0 run taking the lead at 47-42. Houston again found its rhythm bringing the margin within two points as back-to-back 3-pointers from Onyeje and Patterson put Houston back on top 51-49. The Cougars pushed their lead to three points with a jumper from Onyeje making the score 58-55.
Houston continued to dominate in the fourth quarter securing a 7-0 run as well as a 5-0 run to make the score 75-65. FSU sent Houston to the charity line for the majority of the quarter as the last seven points from the Cougars came off of free throws as Houston took the win 78-68.
NC A&T 75, East Carolina 59
The road woes continued for the East Carolina women's basketball team as the Pirates fell at North Carolina A&T 75-59 on Thursday night.
The Pirates fall to 5-6 on the season and are 0-5 on the road this year while the Aggies win their third straight game to improve to 3-6.
The Pirates used shots from beyond the arc to take an early lead in the first quarter. Both teams had five field goals and one free throw in the opening ten minutes, but a pair of triples from Taniyah Thompson and a deep ball by Danae McNeal put ECU up 14-11. Thompson had eight points in the frame while Alexsia Rose handed out four assists.
Unfortunately for ECU, it was the Aggies that got it going from beyond the arc in the second quarter. North Carolina A&T shot 5-of-6 from three in the second frame, including 4-of-4 from Shareka McNeill. That allowed the Aggies to outscore ECU 25-14 and take a 36-28 lead into halftime.
After an early Aggie bucket pushed the lead to 10, East Carolina began to battle back. ECU went on a 10-2 run, all of those 10 points coming in the paint and eight of them on second chances, to cut the North Carolina A&T lead to 42-40 at the third quarter media timeout.
But North Carolina A&T answered with a quick 5-0 run out of the timeout and eventually pushed the lead all the way to 13, before settling for a 55-44 lead after three quarters.
Any hope of a Pirate comeback was quickly dashed as the Aggies opened the fourth on a 7-0 run to take a 62-44 lead before a Thompson three finally ended the run. Thompson added another layup on the next possession to cut the deficit to 13, but that was as close as East Carolina could get with North Carolina A&T seeing out the victory.
Thompson led the Pirates with 22 points, her second straight game with at least 20 points and fourth this season. The junior guard finished 4-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc and had five rebounds.