University of Memphis Athletics
University of Memphis
Houston
@MemphisWBKB Hurries Past Houston, 84-49
Jan 24, 2015 | Women's Basketball
The University of Memphis women's basketball team (10-9, 4-4 American) turned up the tempo in an 84-49 win over Houston (6-13, 1-7 American), Saturday afternoon.
"Coach was on us all week about attacking and tempo," junior guard Ariel Hearn said. "We needed to attack the basket when we broke the press and just not settle for offense and go at the basket."
Hearn sparked the Memphis offense, leading all players with 21 points and seven assists, adding three steals and four rebounds in 38 minutes. Mooriah Rowser came off the bench to add 14 points on 7-for-13 shooting, adding three rebounds, two assists and two steals.
"I'm really proud of players like Mooriah Rowser," Head Coach Melissa McFerrin said. "She came in off a couple of difficult games and was very, very confident and hit some great shots. If we have a team that will play like they did today, where they will grind it out on defense and get some easy stuff in transition, we can keep working toward our goals for this year still."
Memphis jumped out to a 12-0 lead in the early going before Houston could get on the board. The Tigers seemed to be pulling away in the early minutes of the half, but relaxed and began turning it over against the Houston full-court press and the Cougars made them pay, using a 5-0 run that started when Mariah Mitchell hit a jumper to cut the Memphis lead to six at 21-15 with 8:05 to go in the first half.
But Hearn had an answer, draining a three off an assist from Taylor Williams. Mooriah Rowser then added back-to-back buckets and the Tigers spread the lead to double digits at 29-19 with 5:45 to play. An 8-0 Memphis run powered back three points from Cheyenne Creighton and five from Hearn pushed the lead to 18 at 37-19 and Brianna Wright grabbed an offensive rebound and drained the shoulder jumper to help Memphis to the locker room with a 47-23 halftime lead.
Memphis opened the second half with more balanced offense, as Williams drained her first three in as many games. Following a Breigha Wilder-Cochran layup, Williams added another jumper to push the lead to 31 at 54-23. Memphis spent the rest of the afternoon working through the Cougar pressure and answering the press with tempo.
"One of the things we've done is put Ariel back at the point and she loves to be in transition," McFerrin said. "But I really felt like I lightened up on the team this week, letting them look for their shots and not try to dictate so much. I'm going to take a little responsibility for our last couple of games, because sometimes when you try to over-execute, you miss opportunities and I felt like that's what it was. We had some confident kids out there playing today. Our defense was outstanding and we did a good job of sharing the wealth."
Hearn led all players with 21 points and seven assists against three turnovers in 38 minutes. Rowser added 12 off the bench and Brianna Wright just missed a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds.
Mariah Mitchell led Houston with 14 points while Marche' Amerson added nine points. Memphis is back on the road for a mid-week game at Cincinnati, Wednesday. That game will be carried on the American Digital Network at 7 p.m. (ET).
Memphis is back home next Saturday at 2 p.m., hosting USF in a game that will be carried on ESPN3.com. That will be Memphis' Play4Kay game where all fans wearing pink receive free admission.
