University of Houston Athletics
Women's Basketball Begins Practice
10/16/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Oct. 16, 2009
Friday marks the return of official practices for the Houston Cougar's women's basketball team. Before Friday, teams were only allowed to practice no more than two hours per week since Sept. 15.
Friday's workout is the first time that the Cougars can work together with the practice time counting toward the NCAA weekly limit.
Houston is anxious to return to practice after a solid year which saw the Cougars finish 19-10 in the regular season and 11-5 in Conference USA play. The Cougars tied for the second-best conference mark in C-USA. Houston has good reason to be optimistic about improving on those quality numbers as they return 86 percent of their scoring offense and eight letterwinners.
Courtney Taylor, a First-Team All-Conference USA last year, will look to lead the Cougars. Taylor averaged a double-double (16.6 points, 10.1 rebounds) last year and also earned a spot on the C-USA All-Defensive Team.
Four new faces (Lesslee Mason, Zallika Dyson, Macy Morton and Megan Workman) will join the eight returning letterwinners this year. Mason is the only non-freshman of the group and has been around the program for a year as she redshirted last year following her transfer from Ohio State.
UH will host the Houston Jaguars in exhibition action on Nov. 9 before kicking off its season on the road against Gardner-Webb in Boiling Spring, N.C. The Cougars will travel to Arlington, Texas to face UT-Arlington on Nov. 17 before they return home for their first home game. Houston will host Oregon State at Hofheinz Pavilion at 7 p.m., Nov. 19.
