March 3, 2004

For the first-time ever, the University of Houston’s Lady Cougar basketball team will enter its conference tournament as the number one seed and as the highest ranked team in the program’s history.

With a come from behind 76 - 71 victory against Texas Christian University’s (TCU) Lady Frogs last Friday, the Coogs snatched the Conference USA title, its first women’s basketball championship.

The win also propelled the team in the Associated Press poll. As of March 1, the Lady Coogs were ranked 11th in the nation, the team’s highest ranking in its history and the highest ranked women’s basketball team ever in Conference USA.

“It’s great for our university as a whole and for our basketball program,” said Joe Curl, head coach of the UH women’s basketball team. “This gives us national recognition because three of our last four opponents were nationally ranked.”

The victory was somewhat uphill. UH trailed by nine points at halftime, but turnovers plagued TCU. The Lady Coogs took advantage of this and went on a scoring run, eventually overpowering the Lady Frogs, who had won the conference title the two previous years.

“They’re a tremendous bunch of young ladies,” said Curl. “At halftime, we made a few adjustments, but the real adjustment was that the players dug down into the pit of their stomachs and went after the other team. We came out and went right at TCU.”

Big plays from junior Sancho Lyttle, senior Nicole Oliver, junior Daphne Andre and senior Chandi Jones factored into the victory. For Curl, seeing seniors such as Jones and Oliver earn a championship in their final year as Cougars was icing on the cake.

“It’s like a dad watching a daughter,” said Curl. “As coaches, we’re close to our players. That’s part of our jobs. When we recruit these kids, we know we’re getting them as players, but before we take them on the court, we provide them an avenue to become solid students and individuals. That’s a priority.”

The win puts Curl and his team in position to perhaps receive a bid for the NCAA tournament, which begins on March 20. Before then, the team must live up to its role as conference champion by journeying to Fort Worth, the site of this year’s Conference USA Tournament.

Entering as champion, the team has earned a bye in the tournament’s first round and is scheduled to play the winner of today’s game between the University of South Florida and the University of Cincinnatti.

The Lady Coogs will take the court at 1 p.m. on Friday at TCU’s Daniel-Myer Coliseum. The game will be broadcast locally on KAXF 88.3 FM with color commentary from Kevin Cook.

Although the team enters as the number one seed and number 11 in the country, Curl knows that tournaments bring out the best in every team. With that, even the teams with less superior records will be inspired to show up the conference champ.

“It’s a very intense time,” he said. “We understand that every team in this tournament is capable of winning. We’re the number one seed, but the team that is ranked 12th in our conference took us to three overtimes before we won. The team that has the fifth spot in the tournament had us down by 18 before we came back to win. We know that we have to play our best basketball because the stakes of the game have been anted up.”