While she hopes there will be more to celebrate this season, diver Lacey Truelove can check off the goal of becoming a conference champion after this weekend.
Truelove won the platform diving competition with a score of 309.10 — an NCAA ‘A’ qualifying score. Julia Lonnegren scored a 284.30, earning third place.
Overall the Cougars came in fourth. Rice won the championship.
The No. 23 Cougars posted another successful weekend, topping Baylor 1-0 Sunday to win the QTI Powers Invitational in Waco.
Senior pitcher Amanda Crabtree threw her second no-hitter of the season Saturday in the Cougars 8-0 win over Louisiana-Monroe. UH squeaked by the Warhawks 1-0 in their second meeting of the weekend.
UAB emerged from the weekend in first place in a tight race in Conference USA after defeating the Cougars 68-55 Saturday at Hofheinz Pavilion behind the play of Aaron Johnson and Jamaar Sanders.
The Cougars (12-15, 4-10 C-USA) had trouble staying in front of Johnson and have lost nine of their last 10 games.
“He’s an outstanding point guard,” head coach James Dickey said. “When he got to the paint, instead of holding our ground and making him shoot it, we made it easy for him to dish where guys had angles. I thought he was terrific at reading that.”
Sanders and freshman guard Preston Purifoy combined for five 3-pointers during a 21-2 stretch for UAB early in the first half that had UH trailing 25-8.
Sanders poured in a game-high 18 points, while Purifoy and Ovie Soko each scored 17.
The absence of second-leading scorer Adam Brown was noticeable for the Cougars as Zamal Nixon and Maurice McNeil had to carry the load, attempting 24-of-50 UH field goals. Brown was suspended indefinitely Friday for a violation of team rules.
“There have been a number of times where we haven’t had everybody,” Nixon said. “I think what we’ve been doing well is picking up the slack for other guys. Alandise (Harris) had to try to fill in for Adam on the wing tonight and his numbers didn’t show he had a great game, but he’ll pick up the slack in the next two games for Adam.”
McNeil was one of the few standout contributors on offense in the game for UH with 14 points. He also added six rebounds and two blocks.
The Cougars are back in action against Tulane (12-15, 2-12 ) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Fogelman Arena in New Orleans, La.
-By Lance Jaramillo
The Cougars eight-game win streak came to an end Wednesday, but they quickly did their part to start another.
UH lost 2-0 in the first game of a double-header at the Bearkat Softball Complex in Huntsville.
The Cougars bounced back in the second game to win 6-1.
UH is now 9-2 on the season.
“It was one of those things. I never like losing, but I’m glad we got it out of the way so we can get over that fear of `what happens if we lose,” head coach Kyla Holas said in a release. “We know that playing not to lose just because of a number is not the way we play. It was good to see our team come back and play like us in the second game.”
Shortstop Chase Jensen is just one of the new faces in the Cougars’ (3-0) clubhouse making an impact in the young season.
After clobbering UTA pitching to the tune of a .600 batting average (nine-for-15) to go with four runs scored and five RBI, Jensen’s performance earned him the title of Conference USA Hitter of the Week.
Jensen will look to lead the Cougars to their fourth straight victory at 6:30 p.m. tonight against Stephen F. Austin at Cougar Field.
Freshman right-hander Chase Wellbrock will make his UH debut as he takes the hill against the Lumberjacks.
SFA (2-2) comes into the game with a .500 record after splitting four games with Arkansas-Little Rock over the weekend.
The schedule will resume this weekend when the Cougars host Southern Miss. for a three-game series at Cougar Field.
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