Houpt's Career-High Not Enough as Bears Fall 78-66 to Texas Tech

Saturday, November 26

Las Vegas, Nev.

11 PM

Mercer University

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Texas Tech University

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Texas Tech

Mercer

Houpt's Career-High Not Enough as Bears Fall 78-66 to Texas Tech

11/27/2022 2:51:00 AM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Erin Houpt had a career-high 28 points

LAS VEGAS, Nev. - Erin Houpt had a career-high 28 points, but ultimately the Bears couldn't get enough stops down the stretch and fell to Texas Tech 78-66 in the second and final game for the Bears in the Las Vegas Invitational on Saturday night.

Houpt was 6-for-10 from the field including 4-for-7 from three and a perfect 12-for-12 from the free-throw line. She also added four rebounds and three assists.

After shooting just 28.3 percent from the field as a team the previous night against Colorado State, Mercer shot 45.1 percent from the floor against the Red Raiders. Texas Tech led for nearly 37 minutes, but the Bears constantly battled back and went on runs themselves to never let the game get out of reach.

Texas Tech had 38 free-throw attempts to Mercer's 16. The Bears had 21 bench points to Texas Tech's 8. The Red Raiders got most of their scoring from its starters and had two players combine for 48 of their 78 points. Although the Bears did hold Texas Tech's leading scorer in Rhyle McKinnie who came in averaging 16.6 points per game to just three points.

HOW IT HAPPENED
A Summah Evans jump shot made it 9-7 Texas Tech mid way through the first quarter. After an and one from Nigeria Harkless to tie the game at 14, Texas Tech went on a 10-0 run to take a 24-14 lead. Erin Houpt would go on an 8-0 run herself, including a three-pointer to beat the first quarter buzzer to shrink Texas Tech's lead to 26-22 after the first.

After a high scoring first quarter the defenses picked it up in the second as each team shot below 20 percent in the second quarter. Houpt scored the first five points of the second quarter for the Bears and a Nigeria Harkless free throw tied the game at 28. Neither team made a field goal over the final 4:53 of the second quarter and Texas Tech took a 35-30 lead into halftime.

Houpt scored 15 of her 28 in the third quarter. Texas Tech tried got some breathing room through the first five minutes of the third quarter, extending it's lead at halftime from five to 15. Houpt would score 13 of the next 15 points for the Bears, including 8-for-8 from the free-throw line and Amoria Neal-Tysor's lay up with seconds remaining in the third made it a 57-53 game going into the fourth quarter.

A three-point play from Harkless made it a one-point game at 61-60 with 7:45 to play. Texas Tech would then go on a 9-0 run to bring its lead up to 10 with under four minutes to play. Enjulina Gonzalez scored the last six points of the game for Mercer and finished with 12 points.

NOTABLES

Erin Houpt's 12 free throws made were also a single-game career-high for her.
The Bears held Texas Tech to 27.3 percent from three-point range, well below its season average at 44.9 percent which ranked third in the country.
Enjulina Gonzalez was 6-for-7 from the field for 12 points, marking a career-high in points and field goals made for the freshman.

FOLLOW THE BEARS
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