Tuesday, Feb. 25-Wednesday, Feb. 26
Highlights
USF 81, ECU 52
The University of South Florida women's basketball team turned a one-point deficit at the end of the first quarter into a 20-point advantage at halftime as the Bulls rolled to an 81-52 win over East Carolina at the Yuengling Center on Tuesday night. The win improves USF to 17-11 on the year and 9-5 in The American. The Pirates fall to 8-19 overall and 4-9 in conference play.
Elena Tsineke (Thessaloniki, Greece) scored a team-high 19 points while Sydni Harvey (Nashville, Tenn.) had 14 points and Shae Leverett (Rincon, Ga.) tallied 13 in the victory. Leverett also grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds for her second double-double of the season and the seventh of her career.
In addition, Beatriz Jordao (Pombal, Portugal) and Elisa Pinzan (Murano, Italy) scored 11 and 10 points, respectively.
After trailing 17-16 at the end of the first quarter, the Bulls outscored ECU, 31-10, in the second behind Tsineke's 12 second quarter points. Tsineke, who was playing against her twin sister, Katerina, had 16 points in the first 20 minutes of play.
USF took a 47-27 halftime lead and extended the advantage to as many as 34 midway through the fourth quarter never allowing the Pirates to challenge after the first quarter.
East Carolina's damage was limited to only two people as Lashonda Monk (23) and Taniyah Thompson (16) scored 30 of the Pirates' 52 points.
For the game, USF shot 41.5 percent (27-for-65) from the field and a near prefect 90.0 percent (20-for-22) from the free-throw line.
UCF 67, Temple 64
The UCF women's basketball team held off a late run to earn a 67-64 win over Temple on Wednesday evening in Addition Financial Arena.
UCF (17-9, 9-5 The American) saw an eight-point lead disappear in the final frame as Temple (15-12, 7-7 The American) made it a 59-59 game with 2:50 left in the quarter. The Knights responded with a five-point swing to reclaim their edge.
A late foul allowed the Owls to trim UCF's advantage to just one, 65-64, with two ticks left on the clock. Kay Kay Wright stepped up to secure the victory for the home team at the charity stripe, sinking both free throws in the final second to give UCF 67-64 final tally.
Neither team was able to gain a large advantage in the contest. UCF scored first and led by as many six before the Owls closed the first quarter on a 9-2 run to lead 15-14 after the first 10 minutes. Temple led by as many as five points in the second quarter but took just a 32-30 advantage into the locker rooms at halftime.
The teams traded leads in the third quarter before UCF put together a 6-1 spurt over the final 80 seconds to take a 49-43 lead into the final frame.
UCF finished with a season-low five turnovers while forcing Temple into 14. The Knights converted those into 19 points and scored 15 points on the fast break.
With the victory, UCF moved back into a tie with Cincinnati and South Florida for second place in the league standings with just two games remaining in the regular season.
Wright entered Wednesday just nine points shy of moving into the top five on UCF's career points chart. She scored nine in the first half to tie Chariya Davis (1995-99) for fifth on the chart. She added 15 in the second half to put her career total at 1,532 points, which ranks fourth all-time at UCF.
The Orlando native is now the only Knight in program history to rank in the top five in career points, assists and steals.
Wright led all scorers with 24 points, shooting 58.8 percent (10-17) from the floor. Masseny Kaba, Sianna Martin and Brittney Smith each finished with nine points for the Black and Gold. Kaba also collected a team-high seven rebounds and had three blocks.
No. 6/4 UConn 105, Cincinnati 58
Megan Walker scored 25 points, freshman Anna Makurat added 20, and No. 6 UConn dominated a match-up of the American Athletic Conference's top two teams in every way, beating Cincinnati 105-58 Wednesday night.
The Huskies (24-3, 14-0) had already clinched their seventh AAC regular season title. After a sluggish start, they pulled away from Cincinnati (18-9, 9-5), which was in second place alone heading into the game.
The Bearcats had won 12 straight home games, one shy of the school record from 2002-03. Their hopes for a big upset evaporated in the second quarter as UConn surged ahead by 28 points.
UConn got another encouraging performance from Makurat, who has scored 18, 17 and 20 points in the last three games. Her best scoring stretch has added depth to a lineup dependent upon its top four returning players from last season.
Christyn Williams matched her career high with 26 points as UConn pulled away to 100 for the first time this season.
Antoinette Miller scored 17 for Cincinnati, which trailed by as many as 51 points.
UConn opened the game 1-for-6 from the field with three turnovers, but started creating distance late in the first quarter. Makurat and Walker had three-point plays off drives to the basket in the final 66 seconds for a 19-11 lead.
Cincinnati was only 4 of 17 from the field in the first quarter, and the Bearcats' poor shooting continued into the next one. Walker and Williams hit back-to-back 3s that built the lead to 34-15.
UConn led 46-18 at halftime behind Walker, who had 12 points and seven rebounds. Cincinnati shot only 17.5% in the half and got outrebounded 30-15.