Saturday, Feb. 22
Highlights
No. 6/5 UConn 66, UCF 53
Megan Walker scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead No. 6 UConn to a 66-53 win over UCF and the outright regular-season championship in the American Athletic Conference.
Anna Makurat added 17 points and Crystal Dangerfield had 12 of her 14 in the second half for the Huskies (23-3, 13-0 American). They have won 50 conference regular-season or tournament titles in their 46 seasons.
Masseny Kaba scored 14 points and Kay Kay Wright had 12 to lead UCF (16-9, 8-5), which came into the game having won five in a row and six of seven.
The Huskies improved to 133-0 in conference games since the formation of the AAC, including 115-0 in the regular season.
The Huskies never trailed and led 8-3 when UCF's Wright suffered a left leg injury battling for a rebound.
Walker, who put up her ninth double-double this season, scored eight straight points to close the quarter and UConn took a 16-4 lead after the first 10 minutes.
UCF hit just one of its first 14 shots and the Huskies held the Knights without a basket for about 8 1/2 minutes.
Wright returned in the second quarter and UCF outscored the Huskies 14-12 to trail 28-18 at the half.
UConn extended the lead to as many as 20-points in the third, before the Knights made another run.
It was 52-40 with 8:23 left in the game when UConn's Olivia Nelson-Ododa was hit in the nose on what was ruled an intentional foul by Kaba. The Knights were hit with another intentional foul a short time later and UConn was able to stretch the lead back to 58-40.
UCF went on a final run to cut the lead to 10, but a 3-point play and a 3-point shot by Makurat on consecutive possessions put the game away.
This was UConn's 207th straight win over an unranked opponent.
East Carolina 56, Temple 50
A frenetic fourth-quarter comeback helped the ECU women's basketball team knock off Temple 56-50 on Saturday afternoon in Minges Coliseum.
ECU (8-18, 5-8 AAC) was led in scoring by Taniyah Thompson, who finished with 23 points, including making four three-pointers. Lashonda Monk added 17 points, eight assists and two steals, with her final two points giving her 1,000 for her ECU career. Dominque Claytor registered her second straight double-double, scoring 10 points and ripping down a career-high 14 rebounds. It was the third straight win for the Pirates and the fourth straight win inside Minges Coliseum.
Temple (15-11, 7-6 AAC) saw the AAC's leading scorer and rebounder, Mia Davis, finish with a 13-point, 13-rebound double-double. The Owls were led in scoring by Ashley Jones who finished with 14 points to go with five assists.
On Wednesday night, the Pirates had to overcome an early 10-point deficit to beat Tulsa. Saturday afternoon, they dug themselves an even deeper hole. The ECU offense could not get any flow in the early going, scoring just two points in the first 5:45 of the game. On the other end, Temple struck repeatedly from behind the arc, making four triples in the opening eight minutes. A Davis layup with 2:06 to go in the first period put the Owls up 22-5.
ECU could have gone down for the count at that point, but the Pirates stabilized themselves and finished the first quarter on a 6-0 run, four of which came from Thompson, to cut the lead to a manageable 22-11 at the end of the first.
After Temple's early barrage, the ECU defense settled in during the second quarter. The Pirates allowed Temple to score just nine points in the second quarter. On the other end, ECU got a spark from freshman guard Katerine Tsineke, who drilled a pair of triples. That helped ECU cut the lead to 31-23 at halftime.
Coming out of the locker room, ECU took a big swing at the Owls. Thompson missed her first shot of the third quarter but caught fire after that. The AAC's reigning Freshman of the Week made a pull-up jumper and followed it with a pair of three-pointers as part of an 8-2 run that got ECU back within 33-31.
Temple withstood the punch and answered back. The Owls did not let ECU tie the game and finished the quarter on a 7-2 run to push their lead back to 40-33.
In the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, Temple extended its lead back to double-digits, at 43-33. From there though, it was all Pirates, driven by Monk, Thompson and Claytor. Monk and Thompson combined for a 14-0 run that turned a 45-36 deficit into a 50-45 lead with 2:12 to go.
Temple fired back with a 5-0 run, with Jones knocking down a three of her own to tie the game.
From there though, the Pirates used defense and free throws to win the game. A Tiara Chambers offensive rebound led to a Claytor free throw to put ECU back up. ECU survived a Temple possession that saw the Owls get three shots up before ECU grabbed the rebound with 27 seconds left. Monk was fouled and made both of her free throws to make it 53-50. Temple went for the tie with a three, but the ball clanged off the rim and Claytor was able to corral the rebound. The junior guard made her first free throw and then on the second, Ryann Evans was able to tap the offensive rebound out to Monk who was fouled. Monk made her final two free throws to ice the game and give her an even 1,000 for her career.
ECU finished 19-of-58 (.328) from the floor, 6-of-17 (.353) from three and 12-of-18 (.667) from the free throw line. Temple was 20-of-55 (.364) from the field, 6-of-25 (.240) from beyond the arc and 4-of-6 (.667) from the charity stripe. The Owls outrebounded ECU 38-37 while ECU had a 19-9 edge in turnovers forced.
SMU 60, Houston 47
The SMU women's basketball team outscored Houston 20-9 in the fourth quarter to defeat its in-state rival 60-47 in Moody Coliseum Saturday.
Amber Bacon scored a game-high 15 points to lead the Mustangs for the third straight game. The sophomore scored nine points in the fourth quarter to help SMU secure the victory, its third in the last four games.
Trailing 13-4 midway through the first quarter, Ariana Whitfield made a 3-pointer. The three points were the first of a 14-2 run for the Mustangs (12-14, 6-8 The American) that spanned the final four minutes of the quarter. The boost gave SMU an 18-15 lead at the break. Houston (12-15, 5-9 The American) outscored SMU 23-22 over the next 20 minutes, but couldn't not gain significant momentum to regain control.
Playing on its home floor, SMU was not to be denied. Wearing the uniforms with Dallas across their chest, SMU started the final quarter with a 15-3 run. The Mustangs' defense held the Cougars scoreless for the first 6:48 of the quarter.
Paige Bayliss matched her season high with 14 points, and Whitfield, Reagan Bradley and Kayla White each scored eight points. Bradley finished with eight assists and eight rebounds. It was her third game this season with at least eight assists and sixth with seven or more.
USF 68, Memphis 47
With the City of Memphis being known as the "Birthplace of Rock 'n' Roll, the only rocking and rolling that took place was by the University of South Florida women's basketball team as the Bulls handed Memphis a convincing 68-47 loss at Elma Roane Fieldhouse Saturday afternoon. The win improves the Bulls to 16-11 overall and 8-5 in The American, while the Tigers fall to 13-14 overall and 4-9 in conference play.
USF led from wire-to-wire as it placed four players in double figures in the scoring column, led by Tamara Hershaw (Palm Coast, Fla.) with a game-high 13 points. Tennessee native Sydni Harvey (Nashville, Tenn.) and Bethy Mununga (Zellik, Belgium) added 12 points apiece, and Elisa Pinzan (Murano, Italy) chipped in with 11 points.
Shae Leverett (Rincon, Ga.) led the way on the glass with a game-high 10 rebounds.
The Green and Gold led 39-22 at the break, however the Tigers played USF even in the third, 18-18, in which Memphis cut the Bulls' lead to 10 points, 47-37, with under five minutes left in the quarter. USF, however, put together a quick 8-0 run to push the game back to an 18-point advantage and put the Tigers away for good. The Bulls led by as many as 24 points midway through the fourth quarter.
USF shot 45.2 percent (28-for-62) from the field on the day while holding the Memphis to a dismal 22.2 percent (14-for-63) performance from the floor.