Women's Basketball

The American Today: UConn Moves to 30-0; Temple Clinches Tournament First-Round Bye

UConn clinched at least a share of the inaugural American Athletic Conference regular-season title, Temple secured a first-round bye at the upcoming conference tournament and Memphis snapped a seven-game skid during women’s hoops action on Saturday.

No. 1/1 UConn defeated No. 24/RV Rutgers, 72-35 in a senior-day contest at Gampel Pavilion.  Breanna Stewart had 20 points and 10 rebounds and Bria Hartley added 20 points to lead UConn. Betnijah Laney had a team-high 14 points for the Scarlet Knights.

Temple defeated UCF in Orlando, 64-54 and snapped a four-game losing skid in the process. The victory also clinched a first-round bye in the conference tournament for the Owls. Rateska Brown paced Temple with 13 points. Zykira Lewis scored a game-high 14 points for the Knights.

No. 3/3 Louisville picked up a 75-51 win over Cincinnati at Fifth Third Arena. Tia Gibbs led four Louisville players in double-figures with 17 points. Cincinnati's Jeanise Randolph pulled down her 10th double-double of the year, 22 points and 11 rebounds, in the loss.  

Pa’Sonna Hope (12 points) and Ariel Hearn (11 points) led Memphis to a 55-45 road win at Houston. Te’onna Campbell had 10 points, seven rebounds and a game-high four steals for the Cougars.  

Courtney Williams (26 points, 11 rebounds) and Alisia Jenkins (16 points, 13 rebounds) had double-doubles for USF in the Bulls’ 72-51 win over SMU. Keena Mays (22 points) scored her 1,000th career point for SMU in the loss.

All 10 teams are in action on Monday as the league wraps up its inaugural season. UConn travels to Louisville for a nationally televised contest at 7 p.m. ET (ESPN2). A Huskies win would give UConn the American regular-season title outright. A coin flip would determine the top seed for the conference tournament if Louisville wins the game.

Rutgers and USF face off at 7 p.m. in a game that will decide the third and fourth seeds at the American tournament. Cincinnati travels to Memphis for an 8 p.m. ET contest, that matchup will decide the seven and eight seeds at the conference tournament. Both games will air live on The American Digital Network. Temple hosts Houston at 7 p.m. eastern and UCF travels to Dallas for an 8 p.m. ET contest at SMU.