BATON ROUGE, La. – A strong first quarter from the HCU women's basketball was not enough as they dropped an afternoon contest to the LSU Tigers Wednesday in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Houston Christian University (HCU), formerly Houston Baptist University (HBU), underwent a name change in September 2022.
 
After a slow start to the game shooting, the Huskies (1-2) put up a barrage of three balls and closed out the first quarter on an 18-5 run.
 
After falling behind 17-4 early, Julija Vujakovic ignited the offense when she jumped in the LSU (4-0) passing lane to grab a steal and score on the other end. Following a second consecutive steal from Vujakovic, N'Denasija Collins got fouled on a layup attempt and knocked down a pair of free throws.
 
Three three-pointers in a row from Vujakovic, Jo Oly, and Enya Maguire cut the Tigers lead to three, 20-17, before the Tigers made a mid-range jumper off of an HCU turnover. With time winding down in the quarter, Vujakovic knocked down another three and the Huskies went into the second trailing 22-20.
 
LSU's defense was lock down in the second quarter, holding the Huskies scoreless through the first nine minutes before Maguire knocked down a three. Collins beat the buzzer with a layup for HCU and LSU took a 46-25 lead in to halftime. The Huskies held the nation's leading offense to their lowest first half scoring output so far this season.
 
LSU's offense started clicking in the second half as they knocked down 61 percent of their shots from the field and 75 percent of their shots from long range.
 
Vujakovic led the Huskies offense with 18 points while Kennedy Wilson dropped in eight. Collins led HCU in rebounding, grabbing five. For the Tigers, Angel Reese was a force on both ends of the floor dropping in 29 points and gathering 16 rebounds. All five starters for LSU finished in double figures.
 
Following the Thanksgiving holiday, the Huskies will travel to Denver, Colorado to play in the University of Denver Classic where they will go up against the likes of Denver and Yale on November 25 and 26 respectively.