Houston Cougars 54, USF Bulls 77

Posted: December 31, 2013 -- 5:32 pm CST.

HOUSTON, TX (Hofheinz Pavilion) -- The Houston Cougars trailed by 11 points midway through the first half; but, despite making only 4 of 15 free throw attempts in the half, they battled back to take a 31-30 halftime lead. Unfortunately for the Coogs, the second half was a disaster; and, the Coogs fell to 0 and 2 in American Athletic Conference play with a 77-54 loss to the USF Bulls.

"It was a tale of two halves," said Coogs' coach Wade Scott. "The first half, we fought our way back and got the lead. The second half we had too many breakdowns towards the end; gave up too many open shots and we didn't hit free throws once again."

USF (6-7 overall, 1-1 in conference) made 7 of their 10 field goals and led the Coogs (4-9, 0-2) 19-8 with 11:07 remaining in the opening half.

However, the Coogs cooled off the Bulls' hot shooting start and limited USF to 3 of 12 field goal shooting the rest of the half.

After an icy 3 of 16 field goal shooting, the Coogs heated up to make 9 of their final 16 shots to lead 31-30 at the half.

Both teams left much to be desired from the foul line in the opening half. USF missed 7 of 13 free throw attempts while Houston missed 11 of 15 foul shots.

The Bulls began the second half with a 13-2 run to lead 43-33. The Bulls increased the lead to 49-35 before Houston's Jessieka Palmer, Te'onna Campbell and Alecia Smith combined for seven points to cut the deficit to 51-42 at the 10:41 mark of the second half.

Then, USF senior, Inga Orekhova, the star of the game nailed back-to-back three-point shots to begin a 20-2 run over five and a half minutes to blow the game wide open.

Orekhova shot 6 of 8 from the Land of Three and finished with a game-high 18 points. Teammate Alisia Jenkins added a double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Ariadna Pujol chipped 14 points off the bench.

Alecia Smith led the Coogs with 15 points (5 for 13 field goals, 4 for 10 on 3s). Demetria Foreman added 12 points (3 for 14 field goals).

The Coogs shot a frigid 21.9% (7 for 32 field goals) in the second half and a woeful 35.7% (10 for 28) from the foul line for the game.

The Cougars' next two road games are against conference foes Rutgers (Jan. 4) and Connecticut (Jan. 7).

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