Houston Rallies Past Lady Pirates, 90-79
January 26, 2003 | Women's Basketball
HOUSTON -- Houston rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit behind Chandi Jones' 30 points and 11 rebounds as the Lady Cougars beat visiting East Carolina, 90-79, on Sunday afternoon in a Conference USA women's basketball matchup.
The victory snapped a three-game losing skid for the Lady Cougars (10-7, 2-3 C-USA) as Jones continues her reign as the nation's leading scorer (27.4 ppg). Houston's Jones, who entered the game as the nation's leading scorer (27.4 ppg), posted her seventh double-double of the season. Teammate Shondra Bush fell just short of a double-double, adding a career-high 26 points as well as nine rebounds and three steals. Collectively, the scoring tandem of Jones and Bush accounted for 56 of Houston's 90 points. Nicole Oliver was the other Lady Cougar to score in double figures, adding 11 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
East Carolina (8-9, 0-4 C-USA) was led by Jennifer Jackson, who posted 23 points and nine rebounds in the loss. Courtney Willis added 17 points and six boards while Tali Robich had a game-high 10 assists.
Jones hit a three-pointer and Angela Curl followed with back-to-back treys of her own to give Houston the 24-19 lead at the 10-minute mark in the first. ECU battled back with an 8-0 run to tie the game at 29 and keep the lead for the remainder of the half. The Pirates capitalized on Lady Cougar turnovers and took a 41-33 lead with them into halftime.
The Pirates kept the lead for the first 10 minutes of the second half until Jones forced a steal and hit a layup to tie the game at 60-all. Houston held on and managed to connect on 21 of 26 free throws in the second half. Boosted by Jones' 23 and Bush's 21 second-half points, the Lady Cougars went on to win 90-79 in front of their home crowd.
East Carolina committed 27 fouls and 27 turnovers in the game while Houston had 18 fouls and 20 turnovers of its own.
