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University of Houston Athletics
Cougars Face UCF in Season's Final Road Game
2/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
| HOUSTON (6-21, 1-15 AMERICAN) vs. UCF (8-18, 4-11 AMERICAN) | |
|---|---|
| Home Game Tickets | BUY Tickets • Tickets Info |
| Questions? | Fan Guide |
| Date/Time | Tuesday • 6 pm CT |
| Location | CFE Arena • Orlando, Fla. |
| Live Video | ESPN3 |
| Live Audio | UHCougars.com Jeremy Branham, PxP |
| Live Stats | |
| Series History | UCF leads, 8-5 |
| Game Notes | • Houston Notes • UCF Notes • The American Notes |
| Social Media |   |
HOUSTON - The University of Houston women's basketball team will play their final road game of the 2014-15 season on Tuesday evening, when they face American Athletic Conference rival UCF. Tip time at CFE Arena in Orlando, Fla., is scheduled for 6 pm CT.
Tuesday's game will be available around the world through ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app. Cougar fans can watch the game through their personal computers, smartphones, and other streaming devices. This is Houston's fourth ESPN3 appearance of the season.
Also, a free live audio broadcast is available through Houston's Stretch Internet Portal, with Jeremy Branham on the play-by-play call. Live Twitter updates can be accessed throughout the game by following the official UH women's basketball account, @UHCougarWBB.
Houston comes into the game at 6-21 overall, with a 1-15 American Athletic Conference record. The Cougars fell in their last game, 68-51, on Feb. 21 against SMU. Tyler Gilbert was Houston's top performer, with 10 points and seven rebounds, while Marche' Amerson contributed three assists and three steals.
UCF (8-18, 4-11 American) has lost six of its last seven contests, including a 65-49 loss to Memphis on Feb. 18. Fifi Ndour led the Knights with 13 points, with Zykira Lewis and Brittany Montgomery adding 12 points each.
The Knights are 8-5 all-time against Houston, including a 64-50 victory at Hofheinz Pavilion on Dec. 27 in the American opener for both teams. The game was closer than the final score would indicate, as the Cougars led by as many as seven points in the second half. Amerson led the Houston charge with 10 points and three steals in the loss.
 | LAST TIME OUT |
FEBRUARY 21 • SMU 68, HOUSTON 51 | Final Stats Houston fell in their next-to-last home game of the season, 68-51, to SMU on Feb. 21.
Gilbert led the Cougars with 10 points and seven rebounds, and she notched her lone block of the game at the 16:45 mark of the second half. With the rejection, the junior moved into seventh on Houston's single-season blocks leaderboard, with 58.
Bianca Winslow scored seven points on only two field goal attempts, while Jessieka Palmer also scored seven points.
Houston did a great job of getting to the free throw line, where they scored a season-high 20 points.
Down 16 points early in the second half, the Coogs launched a 9-1 run to close the gap to 46-38 with 9:27 on the clock. But SMU held on to the lead for the rest of the afternoon and left Hofheinz with the win.
| GILBERT CONTINUES TO SHINE IN JUNIOR SEASON |
Gilbert continues to put up consistently-strong efforts for the Cougars in her third season. The junior is averaging career highs of 8.0 points and 5.9 rebounds per game this season.
The Missouri City native has led the Cougars in at least one major category in four straight games. She paced Houston in rebounding against Memphis on Feb. 11, No. 1/1 UConn on Feb. 17 and SMU on Feb. 21. She was the team's leading scorer on Feb. 14 at Temple and again in the SMU game.
Gilbert's 58 blocks rank seventh on Houston's single-season leaderboard. She has tallied 17 multi-block games this season.
| HUGHEY REUNITES WITH FORMER BOSS |
Houston Head Coach Ronald Hughey will reunite with his former boss, UCF Head Coach Joi Williams, on Tuesday evening. Hughey was an assistant on the UCF staff in 2008-09, when the Knights won the Conference USA Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in program history.
Williams won the first battle between the two coaches, 64-50, on Dec. 27 in Houston.
| COUGARS CLIMB PROGRAM RECORD BOOKS |
Guard Alecia Smith ranks seventh in UH history with 110 career 3-pointers after hitting six combined trifectas in Houston's last three games. She is chasing Roxana Button (2008-12), who knocked down 125 3-pointers in her career.
Gilbert has swatted 58 shots this season, the seventh-best one-year total in UH history. She is just five rejections behind Cobilyn Hill (2008-09) and Monica Lamb (1983-84) for the sixth position.
The junior now has 77 career blocks, 16 behind Lesslee Mason (2009-11) for eighth all-time in Houston history.
Amerson has started 88 games, which ranks ninth in Houston history. She will match Darla Simpson (1988-92) for eighth in the UH record books with her next starting nod.
Freshman Mariah Mitchell has hit 21 3-pointers this season, which ranks 10th in UH history among freshmen. She will match Amerson (2012-13) for ninth with three more outside shots.
| DEVELOPMENT FACILITY WEBCAM GOES LIVE |
Watch
The Cougars will have a new Basketball Development Facility to call home in 2015-16, and fans can now watch the construction of the facility live, 24 hours a day. To view progress of the construction, fans can click on uh.edu/infotech/services/webcam/.
Designed by DLR Group and Page, the new Development Center is located adjacent to Hofheinz Pavilion at the corner of Cullen Boulevard and Holman Street on the UH campus. Construction on the $25 million facility is expected to be completed by August 2015
The 53,000 square-foot facility will provide the environment that the Houston Men's and Women's Basketball student-athletes need to excel throughout the season in all areas. The first level will house a dedicated practice court for each team as well as sports performance and sports medicine areas, which will be used by both programs.
The second level will feature the teams' areas, which include locker rooms and academic/film theaters. The team rooms contain spacious, modern lockers, multiple video screens for television and comfortable furniture. The third level will hold office space for both Men's and Women's Basketball coaching and support staffs.
| COUGARS IN THE AMERICAN RANKINGS |
Three Cougars continue to rank among the top statistical performers in The American through games played on Feb. 22.
Palmer paces the Houston attack and ranks 30th in The American in scoring, at 9.5 points per game. The junior is also listed 28th in the league with 4.8 rebounds per game.
Gilbert ranks fourth in The American, averaging 2.1 blocked shots per game. Houston's leading rebounder, the junior is listed 18th in the conference with 5.9 boards per game.
The shot-blocker has spent the majority of the season ranked among the NCAA's top-50 in blocks, and she's currently listed 51st.
Smith is ranked among the league's top floor generals in multiple categories. She is listed fifth in assists, with 3.5 per game, and eighth with a 1.2 assist-to-turnover ratio.
| JOIN THE CLUB |
Two Cougars reached statistical milestones against Tulane on Jan. 27. Leading the way was Smith, who made her 100th career 3-point field goal in the game. She is the seventh Cougar to reach the milestone.
Gilbert tallied her 60th career block in the Tulane game. She is one of only 10 Cougars to record the feat. The junior became just the ninth Cougar to block 50 shots in a single season against East Carolina on Feb. 3.
Amerson topped the 800-point plateau for her career on Feb. 7 against Tulsa. The Bryan native is on pace to become Houston's 23rd 1,000-point scorer midway through the 2015-16 season.
| SERIES HISTORY vs. UCF |
UCF is 8-5 all-time against the Cougars.
Houston last earned a win over the Knights on Feb. 28, 2012, a 66-53 victory at Hofheinz Pavilion. Houston native Danielle Parks led the Cougars with 24 points in the win, while then-freshman Terran Alford scored 10 points and snared nine rebounds. | Final Stats
The Cougars fell to UCF in their first meeting this season, 64-50, on Dec. 27 at Hofheinz Pavilion. Houston led at halftime, 29-26, and quickly stretched the lead to seven points early in the second half before UCF began their comeback. Amerson led the Cougars with 10 points, while UCF's Yanique Gordon came off the bench to collect 17 points and 12 rebounds. | Final Stats
| SCOUTING THE KNIGHTS |
UCF (8-18, 4-11 American) enters Tuesday's game having lost six of their last seven outings. The Knights were beaten by Memphis, 65-49, on Feb. 18. | Final Stats
Though UCF is 10 games under .500, they have been a much stronger team at home, where they are 6-7.
The Knights dug a 33-15 halftime hole in their Feb. 18 loss to Memphis and shot just 31.6 percent overall after missing 25 of 30 first half field goal attempts.
Lewis scored 12 points in the Memphis loss and leads the Knights with 19.2 points per game overall. The mark ranks seconds in The American.
A deadly outside shooter, the sophomore is listed second in the conference with 2.8 made 3-pointers per game. She also ranks second in minutes played, at 35.3 per game.
Montgomery leads UCF with 6.8 rebounds per game, while Andrea Hines chips in a team-best 4.4 assists per game.
| 2014-15 AWARDS TALLY |
Three Cougars have already earned spots on the American Athletic Conference Weekly Honor Roll this season. Gilbert was the latest to receive the honor, on Jan. 19, after pulling in 13 rebounds vs. Tulsa.
Palmer was honored on Nov. 24 after scoring a career-high 20 points in the win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and Mitchell took home the award on Dec. 22 after scoring 15 points in the Nicholls State victory.
Mitchell and Amerson were both honored with spots on the Athletes in Action All-Tournament Team for their play at the event. Both players averaged 8.0 points per game at the tournament, leading the Cougars to a 2-1 record.
| #CHASING GREATNESS WITH THE COUGARS |
Three student-athletes have signed to join the Houston program next season.
Chyanne Butler, a native of Costa Mesa, Calif., transferred to Houston at the start of the spring 2015 semester and will play for the Cougars in 2015-16. The USC transfer averaged 17.0 points and 3.3 steals per game during her prep career. She was tabbed as the Class of 2014's 25th-ranked point guard by ESPN Hoopgurlz.
Sharayla Brown is a 6-3 post player out of Tulsa, Okla., and East Central HS. She averaged 12.0 points per game as East Central advanced to the championship game of the 2014 OSSAA Class 5A State Tournament.
Serithia "MoMo" Hawkins is a 5-10 guard from Moore, Okla., and Southmoore HS. She is ranked as the 69th-best Class of 2015 guard by ESPN Hoopgurlz, and she is a 3-star prospect. Led by Hawkins, Southmoore upset the top-ranked team in the state of Oklahoma, Edmond Santa Fe, on Tuesday evening.
| QUICK HITS |
- Amerson averages 10.4 points per game in five career appearances against UCF, tops on the Houston team.
- Smith scored 15 points against the Knights on Dec. 28, 2013, and Amerson scored 15 on March 13, 2013 in a Conference USA Tournament game. Those totals represent the most scored by a current Cougar against UCF.
- Gilbert has now rejected a shot in 25 of Houston's 27 games this season, with separate streaks of 11 and 13 games.
- Smith set a career high with seven assists in the first meeting with UCF this season.
| UP NEXT FOR COUGARS |
Houston finishes the regular season on Monday, March 2, when they host Temple at 7 pm CT. The Cougars will honor seniors Terran Alford and Demetria Foreman prior to their final home game. | TICKETS
The 2015 American Championships begin on Friday, March 6 in Uncasville, Conn.
| STAY CONNECTED |
Fans can receive daily information and in-game updates by following @UHCougarWBB on Twitter. Fans can also catch up with the latest news and notes on the team by clicking LIKE on the team's Facebook page at facebook.com/UHCougarWBB .
| STUDENTS - CHEER ON YOUR COUGARS! |
All UH main campus students are admitted FREE to regular season women's basketball home games with a valid student ID.
--UHCougars.com--
