Houston routs SMU 60-44 to begin AAC play 1-0

POSTED: December 31, 2022 -- 8:50 a.m. CT

HOUSTON, TX (Fertitta Center) -- The Houston Cougars women's basketball team routed the SMU Mustangs Friday night in the American Athletic Conference opener for both teams. Houston improves to 4-10 overall and 1-0 in The American. SMU (9-4, 0-1) was missing Jasmine Smith. They're point guard and top scorer.

"That SMU team is really good," Ronald Hughey, Houston Head Coach mentioned after the game. "They were missing a key player in Jasmine (Jasmine Smith) who's out. If they had her, the game would've been a different. A little tougher for us."

With Smith unavailable, SMU struggled against Houston's pressure defense. The Mustangs committed 9 turnovers in the first quarter.

"I'm really proud of our young ladies tonight," Coach Hughey added. "We talked about being who we are and our identity of who we are. Just like Nike has a brand. adidas has a brand. Jordan has a brand. We have a brand; and, everybody knows when you talk about Houston Women's Basketball, we're going to press. We're going to be 94-feet the entire game. When we're aggressive like that, good things happen for us."

The game was filled with turnovers. SMU finished the game with 23 turnovers while Houston committed 25 turnovers. Houston outscored SMU 22-14 in points off turnovers.

Houston never trailed in the ball game. The Coogs led SMU 13-6 after the first quarter; 31-21 at halftime; and 50-29 after 3 quarters.

Midway in the second quarter, Houston's Tatyana Hill stole a crosscourt pass and raced down the court and scored a layup. Hill's 2 points from the layup were the 1000th point in her UH career.

"I'm super proud of her," Coach Hughey said of Hill's reaching the 1000 point milestone. "She's one of those kids that stayed faithful and stayed loyal. A lot of people in her position would have transferred after not playing her freshman year."

Hill said she did not imagine she would reach 1000 points in her college career when she was a freshman.

"No, I did not because coming from high school, transferring over to college, it was a lot to handle as a freshman," Hill remarked. "I kinda just kept my composure every day. Getting better every day with it."

Hill finished the game with 9 points, a season-high 5 blocked shots, and a team-high 6 steals.

Laila Blair led Houston with 18 points on 7 for 10 field goal shooting. Tiara Young added 13 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists off the bench.

The Coogs entered conference play with a 3-10 record; but, Coach Hughey says Houston's tough non-conference schedule helped the team prepare for AAC play.

"We're 1 and 0. This is what it's all about with conference play for us. At the end of the day, non-conference, we were battled tested," Coach Hughey said. "And, I thought those games really prepared us for where we are right now. Anybody that we play in conference, we're going to be battle tested and ready to go. Really, really proud of our young ladies tonight."

NEXT:

Houston's next game is Thursday, January 5, on the road at Tulane. Tip is set for 6 p.m. on ESPN+.

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