Houston women’s basketball lassoed by Big 12’s top offense in loss at Oklahoma State

Houston women’s basketball has faced no shortage of true tests when it came to entering Big 12 play in the inaugural campaign of coach Matthew Mitchell, considering the conference’s rise in relevancy and anticipated increase in bids for the NCAA tournament.

But from one tall task in facing the nation’s leading scorer to another in facing the league’s top offense, small but promising styles of play within the rebuild remain not enough for the Cougars to overtake that dominance.

Just days after a slow-paced, yet wire-to-wire affair in its conference home-opener, Houston looked to keep that same pace facing Oklahoma State, but it suffered an 83-52 loss at the hands of the Cowgirls’ fifth-rated offense in DI at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater on Saturday and dropped the Cougars to 6-8 overall and 0-3 in Big 12 play.

Although the Cougars held Oklahoma State considerably below its 91.1 points per game average as a team, the Cowgirls’ 50.7% shooting spurt from the field put the contest out of reach for Houston beginning as early as the final minutes of the first quarter. 

Five Cowgirls scored in double figures, while senior guard Micah Gray and sophomore guard Jadyn Wooten each posted 21 points and combined to shoot 14-for-28 from the floor.

The severity of the turnover battle proved less daunting for Houston compared to its Big 12 opener at West Virginia on Dec. 21, but days after winning the margin in a losing effort, the Cougars finished minus-5 in committing 22 turnovers.

The issues of cleanliness with the basketball and a recurrence in the lack of shot selection hindered the Cougars’ shooting splits in going just 34% from the floor and 33% from 3-point range. 

Amongst the shooting woes however, senior guard TK Pitts posted a team-high 15 points in going 5-for-13 from the floor over 37 minutes, while continuing her torrid stretch on the glass by grabbing eight rebounds to add on to her career-high 15-board performance from Wednesday. 

Freshman forward Jade Jones issued her second consecutive double-figure performance off the bench for the Cougars in scoring 10 points off 5-for-10 shooting over 30 minutes, raising her Big 12 scoring average to nine points through three conference games. 

Despite these efforts, Houston faced a similar struggle from earlier in the week in being dominated 44-20 in the paint by the Cowgirls, which made the defining touch in the defeat. 

Up next, the Cougars, still looking for their first Big 12 win under Mitchell, return to Fertitta Center for the start of a two-game homestand as they’ll host the Kansas State Wildcats on Wednesday, Jan 7. at 6:30 p.m. CST.