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Teams: No. 17 Syracuse Orange (3-1) vs .Houston Cougars (3-2)
Date and Time: Thursday November 28, at 8 p.m. ET. After you’ve had all your food and watched the good football games, turn on some ‘Cuse Basketball.
Location: CARSA Performance Gym, Victoria, B.C.
TV Network: Stream for free at FloHoops.com
Radio: Cuse.com
Houston Blog: No Blog, but follow Swish Appeal for everything Women’s basketball.
Rivalry: First meeting.
Head Coaches: Syracuse - Quentin Hillsman (14th year, 291-146 at SU). Houston - Ronald Hughy (6th year, 62-97 at UH)
Coach Bio: After being an assistant coach for most of his professional career in the women’s game, Ronald Hughy was named the head coach at the University of Houston at the start of the 2014-2015 season. Prior to his job now, he was an assistant coach at Florida State from 2012-2014 when the Seminoles made three consecutive NCAA tournaments.
Last Year: Last season, the Cougars struggled in the American Athletic Conference as they finished with an overall record of 15-16, but ended up making the WNIT. They got bounced by Arkansas in the first round.
“Fear Me, I’ve Killed Hundreds of Timelords”: Tatyana Hill could pose some problems in the paint for the Orange. The 6-2 hometown hero from Houston, Texas has incredible awareness in the paint and is the Cougars second leading scorer averaging 12.8 ppg. Through five games, she has 41 rebounds including 7 offensive rebounds alone when Houston beat Southeastern Louisiana earlier in the year. Emily Engstler and Digna Strautmane need to make their presence known inside so Hill doesn’t get in a groove.
If Syracuse Wins: If the Orange win, which they should, it means they are moving on in the tournament and not playing in the consolation game, which would be great. We really need to see SU make a statement and have a good bounce back game.
If Syracuse Loses: Definitely not what you want to see on such a great holiday. No the end of the world, but the Orange would need to wake up and win the next two while they’re in Canada.
Fun Fact: As stated previously, this is the first meeting between the Orange and Cougars. The men’s teams have only faced off once in a game played in a game played in 1982. Syracuse would win that game.