Landry Dazzles as UH Women’s Basketball Tops Delaware State, 71-58

Photo By Darla Tamulitis-La Vita Loca Photography

Senior guard narrowly misses triple-double performance

HOUSTON, TEXAS (January 6, 2013) Senior guard Porsche Landry (pictured left) turned in a career performance with 30 points, nine rebounds and nine assists to lift the University of Houston women’s basketball team to a 71-58 victory over Delaware State in overtime on Sunday afternoon at Hofheinz Pavilion.

Landry hit the 30-point mark for the fourth time in her career while setting career highs in rebounds and assists to flirt with a triple-double performance.

Freshman guard Alecia Smith scored in double figures for the second time in the last three games with 16 points, while junior forward Yasmeen Thompson registered her third double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Smith gave Houston its largest lead of the contest at 35-24 with a fast-break layup with 17:52 remaining, but the Lady Hornets stormed back with a 24-7 run to take a six-point lead with just 5:53 left to play.

Landry then took the game over, finding Thompson under the basket for layup to trim the deficit to four.

After Delaware State’s Tierra Hawkins knocked down a jumper, Landry answered with a layup to keep the deficit at four with just over four minutes remaining.

Smith trimmed the deficit to two points with a pair of free throws, and after another Hawkins jumper, junior forward Te’onna Campbell made the first of two shots from the charity stripe, where Landry grabbed the offensive rebound and converted the put-back to make it a one-point contest.

On the defensive end, Campbell grabbed a steal and Landry sunk a fade-away jumper from the baseline to put the Cougars ahead by one with 1:02 left to play.

Photo By Darla Tamulitis-La Vita Loca Photography

Junior forward Marissa Ashton snagged another steal with 36 seconds remaining and Thompson grabbed an offensive board and followed with a layup with just over seven seconds left to put Houston up by three, but Delaware State’s Chelsea Dukes drained a 3-pointer with less than a second on the board to force overtime.

The Cougars (6-7) quickly put the contest out of reach in the overtime period, as Smith opened with a 3-pointer at the 4:36 mark.

Landry then followed with back-to-back 3-point plays, racing for a fast-break layup before stealing the ball on the opposite end for another layup to give Houston a nine-point lead in just over a minute.

The Houston native tallied 12 of the Cougars’ 16 points in the extra five-minute period.

Ashton also turned in a solid performance, posting eight points and three steals while pulling down 10 boards for her third double-digit rebound contest this season.

The Cougars shot 45 percent (27-of-60) from the field while the Lady Hornets turned in a 39-percent (23-of-59) effort from the field.

Houston out-rebounded Delaware State by a 42-37 margin on the glass while forcing 19 turnovers and swiping 10 steals.

The Cougars open Conference USA action against Memphis at 7 p.m., Thursday at Hofheinz Pavilion.