Southern Miss
Houston
Women's Basketball Team Falls to Houston
1/13/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 13, 2011
Box Score | Box Score in PDF Format 
HOUSTON, Texas - Junior Rachel Vigers scored a game-high 24 points and senior Tanesha Washington added a double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds but it wasn't enough as the University of Houston knocked off Southern Miss, 78-59, in Conference USA action Thursday night.
Courtney Taylor and Lesslee Mason scored 20 points apiece for Houston (12-4, 3-0). Taylor also pulled down 12 rebounds and Porsche Landry chipped in 10 points.
"Our goal was to not give up an offensive rebound and not allow 11 (Brittney Scott) to shoot a three ball," Coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. "We did the job on Scott, but we gave up 16 offensive rebounds in the first half. We dug ourselves a hole in the first half and then we couldn't come out of it. We were got hammered 41-23 in the first half, and then we lose to them by only one point in the second half. It is because we rebounded the basketball and that was the difference. This team has got to take what we did in the second half and continue to play like that. The good thing about it was we did it with Nia Bradford and Niesha Pierce on the floor. We did it with those young players."
Houston opened the game scoring the first five points before Vigers hit a driving layup at the 16:37 mark. From there, Houston pushed its lead to 12-2 on a 7-0 run. Washington scored the next three points in getting the lead down to seven, 12-5. Taylor then hit four straight free throws to give the Cougars an 11-point advantage. The two teams traded baskets for the next five minutes before UH used a 12-4 in taking a commanding 34-17 lead with just over four minutes remaining in the half. USM then countered with six straight points to get within 11, but Houston scored the last seven points to end the half.
The Lady Eagles (6-10, 1-2) played evenly with the Cougars through the first four minutes to start the second half until Lesslee Mason sparked an 11-2 run in extending the lead to 57-33. Following a Southern Miss timeout, the Lady Eagles then rattled off nine straight points to cut the lead to 15 points, 57-42, with 10:41 remaining. Houston came right back with a 9-0 run of its own. USM did get the margin down to 16, but the first half lead was too much to overcome.
Southern Miss won the battled of the boards, out-rebounding the Cougars, 52-47. Houston scored 44 points in the paint and 27 points off 27 USM turnovers.
Southern Miss returns home to host Tulsa on Sunday in a televised contest at 5 p.m., on CSS.
