The women’s basketball team lost to Houston and Southern Methodist University this week, pushing their losing streak to five games with a tough matchup against South Florida this upcoming week.
It was the shooting that cost the Golden Hurricane the game in their 65–62 loss to the Cougars. Tulsa shot 33 percent from the field, while Houston made 47 percent of their shots. The Golden Hurricane out-rebounded the Cougars and seven fewer turnovers, but couldn’t make enough shots to overcome the three-point loss.
Freshman Kendrian Elliott led the Golden Hurricane with 18 points and had her fourth double-double this season, while Liesl Spoerl joined her in double digits with 10 points.
“We hung with Houston on the boards, but they shot better than usual and we didn’t shoot very well so a combination of them shooting almost 50 percent and us shooting 32 percent makes a huge difference. I thought we rebounded well and we had open shots,” said Head Coach Matilda Mossman after the game.
“Kendrian was good offensively and defensively, and Liesl was two rebounds away from a double-double, but they were the only ones rebounding,” Mossman continued.
Tulsa hit the road in their next game, but were outplayed in every phase of the game in the 62–41. SMU led 54–38 in rebounds, 18–7 in assists, 6–0 in blocks and 6–5 in steals. The Golden Hurricane couldn’t hit their shots in this game — making it four games in a row with poor shooting — making only 24-percent of their shots while SMU shot 39-percent.
No Tulsa player hit double digits in points, and junior Erika Wakefield led the Golden Hurricane with only eight points.
After the game, Mossman talked about the team’s rough outing.
“We knew our posts weren’t going to get a lot of points today, but we wanted them to get touches and kick it out to our shooters, but our shooters just didn’t connect on the perimeter. That’s four games in a row now that we didn’t shoot the ball very well. Hopefully with us not having a midweek game next week they can get in the gym and get some shots up on their own and get their confidence up.”
With an 8–19 record and 4–10 American Athletic Conference record the women’s basketball team currently sits in ninth place in the AAC. With tough games against USF (third) and Cincinnati in their final two games of the season, they should finish the season as one of the bottom three teams in the conference.
This would give them a matchup against SMU or Memphis in the first round of the conference tournament in two weeks.
