Peyton McFarland's 21 points leads UH over FAMU, 79-59

POSTED: December 3, 2023 -- 11:50 p.m. CT

HOUSTON, TX (Fertitta Center) -- The Houston Cougars women's basketball team returned to win column Sunday afternoon with a 79-59 victory over the Florida A&M Rattlers. Peyton McFarland scored 21 points off the bench to lead the Coogs.

After the game, Houston Head Coach Ron Hughey gave his team a grade of 'D' for their performance.

"We didn't play up to the standard of Houston Cougars women's basketball," Coach Hughey said matter-of-fact.

Florida A&M (1-6) led Houston (5-1) early in the ball game thanks to points in the paint. The Rattlers led 8-6 due to 4 layups in three minutes.

Houston's offense keyed the turnaround. Laila Blair made a three-point shot to start a 9-0 Houston run. Teammate N'Yah Boyd followed with a three-point basket; and, Bria Patterson drained a three to give Houston a 15-8 lead with 5:13 to go in the first quarter.

The Coogs led the Rattlers 26-12 at the end of the opening 10 minutes. Blair and McFarland each scored 7 points in the quarter.

Houston outscored Florida A&M 18-9 in the second stanza; however, neither team shot the ball well in the quarter: Houston made 5 of 15 field goals (33.3 fg%); FAMU made 4 of 15 (26.7 fg%).

Houston led FAMU 44-21 at halftime. Peyton McFarland scored a game-high 12 points in the first half.

McFarland scored 9 of Houston's 22 points in the third quarter as Houston led by as much as 28 (64-36) in the quarter. However, the Coogs committed 7 turnovers in third and made 8 of 19 field goal attempts. Florida A&M made 8 of 13 (61.5 fg% in the third quarter but turned over the ball 8 times.

With 5:59 left in the game, Houston enjoyed its largest lead (75-44) of the game; however, Houston did not finish the game strong as the Rattlers outscored them 15-4 to for the final margin of 20 points.

"Florida A&M played to their standard. They didn't stop playing," Coach Hughey said after the game.

Coach Hughey lamented the fact his team committed more turnovers (25) than FAMU (24). Houston had 10 turnovers in the final quarter.

"We had a goal to try to turn them over 35 times. I think they turned us over more than times than we did them. Yeah, we had 25; they had 24," Coach Hughey remarked.

"We wasn't locked in. We didn't play up to the standard," Coach Hughey continued. "We wasn't consistently fighting. We didn't give the effort every single time to try to defend them to the best of our ability."

"Overall, I thought we were sub par in our performance today."

NEXT:

Houston's next game is Saturday, December 8, on the road, against Texas A&M - Commerce. Tip is set for 6 p.m. on ESPN+.

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