USF Athletics

Women's Basketball

Bulls Win Conference Opener; Bearcats, Hurricane Notch First League Victories



Wednesday, Jan. 4 Results
 
Cincinnati 63, UCF 57 Box Score Recap
No. 1/1 UConn 90, East Carolina 45 Box Score Recap
No. 22/22 USF 62, NR/RV Tulane 53 Box Score Recap
NR/RV Temple 79, Kennesaw State 38 Box Score Recap
Tulsa 57, Memphis 52 Box Score Recap

Highlights

• Cincinnati weathered a late surge from UCF to pick up a 63-57 victory Wednesday night at Fifth Third Arena.  The Bearcats improved to 10-5 on the season and 1-1 in league play. UCF fell to 10-5 overall and 0-2 in American action with the loss. Junior guard Ana Owens notched her fourth 20-plus point game of the season for Cincinnati with a game-high 20 points as well as a career-high tying three steals. Aliyah Gregory paced UCF with 15 points.  

The win broke a tie with the John Wooden's UCLA men's program, which won 88 straight in the early 1970s, and put the Huskies one game away from tying their own NCAA Division I record for consecutive wins. Graduate student Kristen Gaffney led the Pirates in scoring with 12 points.

• Four Bulls scored in double figures to help USF open American Athletic Conference play with a 62-53 road win at Tulane on Wednesday night. The Bulls snapped the Green Wave's 11-game home winning streak that dated back to Feb. 3 of last season. Leading the way for USF was junior Maria Jespersen, who posted her sixth double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds.



Temple won its sixth-straight game on Wednesday, topping Kennesaw State 79-38 on the road. The win improved TU to 10-3 overall, the best start for the program since opening the 2009-10 season 10-2. Temple forced a season-high 27 turnovers in the Owls vs. Owls battle, also holding Kennesaw to just 30.2% (13-of-43) shooting from the field. Junior Donnaizha Fountain led all players with 20 points on 4-of-6 shooting from long-range and added eight rebounds and five steals on the defensive end.

• Erika Wakefield and Alexis Gaulden both tallied 13 points to lead Tulsa to a 57-52 win over Memphis Wednesday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.  The Golden Hurricane moved to 5-10 on the season and 1-1 in the American Athletic Conference, while the Tigers fell to 7-8 overall and 0-2 in the league. who finished with 22 points bench points in the decision, tying their season-high.


Schedule/Results
(Week of Jan. 2-Jan. 8)

Wednesday, Jan. 4
NR/RV Temple 79, Kennesaw State 38 *
Cincinnati 63, UCF 57 *
No. 1/1 UConn 90, East Carolina 45 * ^
No. 22/25 USF 62, NR/RV Tulane 53 *
Tulsa 57, Memphis 52 *

Saturday, Jan. 7
Memphis at UCF • 2 p.m. ET *
Houston at Cincinnati • 2 p.m. ET *
SMU at East Carolina (American Digital Network) 7 p.m. ET *
Tulsa at No. 22/25 USF (ESPN3) 7 p.m. ET *

Sunday, Jan. 8
NR/RV Tulane at NR/RV Temple (ESPN2) 1 p.m. ET *


All times subject to change
[*] American Athletic Conference game
[^] Game played at the XL Center (Hartford, Conn.)