| Junior Ashleigh Franklin led UTSA with a double-double of 15 points and 18 rebounds on Monday. |
SAN ANTONIO — Houston used a strong second half to collect the 74-53 win against the UTSA women’s basketball team Monday afternoon at the Alamodome.
The Roadrunners dropped to 4-3 on the season, while the Cougars improved to 6-3 on the year.
“I think it was a mental thing when Whitney went down in the first half, but we can’t have that happen," head coach Rae Rippetoe-Blair said. "Houston deserves a lot of credit because they made shots. Ashleigh had a great game today, while playing all 40 minutes, but we needed other players to step up and they did not. We are going to learn from this loss and get prepared for our next game.”
Junior Ashleigh Franklin recorded her team-leading fourth double-double of the season with a team-high 15 points and game-high 18 rebounds. Sophomore Cierra Martin added eight points, all coming in the second half, while sophomores Shantel Nwanguma and Whitney York and junior Kameisha Johnson scored seven points apiece.
UTSA had its troubles from downtown shooting 12 percent on 3-of-25, including 0-of-10 in first half. The Roadrunners continued their struggles connecting on 22-of-70 (31.4 percent).
The Cougars posted three players in double figures with Courtney Taylor’s game-high 18 points to go along with 10 rebounds. Brittney Scott and Porsche Landry chipped in with 17 and 11 points apiece.
Houston put the game away with a 20-2 run to make the score 50-31 within the first six minutes and 30 seconds of the second half. Nwanguma’s jumper cut the deficit to 14 points (52-38) at the 12:38 mark, which would be the closest UTSA would get for the rest of the game.
Megan Morton gave the Cougars their largest lead of the game 74-48 with under three minutes to play and cruise to the 21-point victory.
UTSA’s Whitney York netted four of the first six Roadrunners points for the 6-0 lead with 16:29 to go in the first half. Houston then scored seven unanswered points to make it a 7-6 lead with 13:43 to go.
A Scott 3-pointer from the left wing broke a 9-9 tie at the 12-minute mark. The Roadrunners went on a 7-0 spurt to retake the four-point lead (16-12) midway through the stanza.
Taylor’s free throw tied the game at 20-20 with over six minutes left on the clock. The Roadrunners then pushed their lead 26-22 on York’s fastbreak layup with 4:47 left, but the Cougars took the one-point advantage (30-29) at intermission.
UTSA heads to Las Vegas, Nev., for the Duel in the Desert tournament against No. 12 Florida State on Dec. 19 at 2 p.m (CT) and then versus either Arkansas/No. 21 DePaul the following day.