CHAMP CENTRAL
BOX SCORE
NOTES
QUOTES
HIGHLIGHTS
PHOTO GALLERY
UNCASVILLE, Conn. – USF guard Courtney Williams scored 29 points – the most in an American Athletic Conference tournament game in the three-year history of the event, to send the No. 2-seeded Bulls to the semifinal round with a 73-60 win against SMU Saturday night at Mohegan Sun Arena.
The Bulls (22-8) will face either Temple or Tulsa in Sunday’s semifinal round in a game that will be televised on ESPNU at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Williams’ total bettered the previous American Championship mark of 27 points, set by Memphis’ Ariel Hearn against Houston in the first round of the 2014 tournament.
Williams scored 18 points in the first quarter alone, including the first 11 USF points, as the Bulls built a 23-15 lead after 10 minutes and a 39-23 margin at halftime. Williams scored 24 points in the first half, coming one point shy of Breanna Stewart’s (UConn) American Athletic Conference record for all games, set Jan. 23, 2014, against Temple.
The Bulls led by as many as 17 in the fourth quarter, but SMU went on a 9-0 run, capped by back-to-back jump shots by Stephanie Collins, to close within eight at 59-51 with 4:41 left. That was as close as SMU would get, as USF scored the next five points, taking a 66-51 lead on Williams’ pullup jumper with 1:54 to play.
Ariadna Pujol scored 16 points for USF, while Alisia Jenkins led the Bulls with nine rebounds.
SMU (13-18) was led by guard Morgan Bolton, who scored a team-high 15 points, while Collins finished with 14 and a team-high seven rebounds. The game brought an end to the coaching career of Rhonda Rompola, the SMU alumna who has served as head coach of her alma mater since 1991 and either played or coached in 35 of the 40 years that women’s basketball has been a varsity sport at the school. Rompola finishes her career with 439 wins, the most for an SMU coach in any sport, and seven NCAA tournament appearances.