Friday, November 12
FGCU 70, Temple 53
The Temple women's basketball team dropped its first game of the season on Friday night, falling to FGCU, 70-53. After trailing by six points going into halftime, an 8-2 run for the Owls cut the deficit to two points early in the third quarter. From there, however, the Eagles took control of the game, going on an 18-8 run to end the third quarter and put the game out of reach.
Senior Alexa Williamson led the Owls with 23 points, 17 of those coming in the first half. She added 12 rebounds to give her a double-double. Mia Davis followed closely behind her with 16 points of her own. Jasha Clinton led the team with 10 assists.
No. 15/12 Tennessee 49, UCF (RV) 41
A slow start proved to be too much to overcome for the UCF women's basketball team, dropping a 49-41 decision to No. 12/15 Tennessee on Friday evening in Addition Financial Arena.
UCF (1-1) scored the first basket of the contest, but Tennessee (2-0) scored the next seven to take the lead. The Lady Vols led by as many as six, 10-4, before a 5-0 spurt in the final 90 seconds of the opening frame cut the lead to one, 10-9, at the end of the first quarter.
Shania Meertens pulled UCF even with a free throw in the second period, but Tennessee responded to pull back in front and took a 26-14 advantage into the locker rooms.
The visitors opened the second half with a basket to extend their lead to 14 points, 28-14, and looked to be pulling away, but UCF turned up its intensity. Tay Sanders drove to the basket for two points, grabbed a steal for another layup and four quick points. Destiny Thomas cut the deficit to single digits, 31-22, before the Lady Vols pushed back to out a 12-point edge.
With 1:11 remaining in the frame, the point guards went to work. A three-pointer and a pair of free throws from Diamond Battles, followed by a trey from Alisha Lewis pulled UCF within four points, 34-30, entering the final 10 minutes.
The Knights were unable to close the gap in the final period as the Lady Vols avoided the upset in the first meeting between the programs.
Diamond Battles scored a career-high 21 points, going a perfect 7-for-7 from the charity stripe. She also dished out a pair of assists. Battles, Masseny Kaba and Destiny Thomas each collected a trio of steals. Thomas matched her career best with 11 rebounds.
High Point 60, East Carolina 50
A cold-shooting stretch in the fourth quarter proved decisive as the East Carolina women's basketball team fell to High Point 60-50 on Friday evening.
The Pirates fall to 0-2 on the young season while the Panthers improve to 1-1.
Neither team shot the ball well in the first quarter, but the Pirates were able to get to the free throw line to help juice the offense. East Carolina shot 5-of-9 from the line in the opening 10 minutes and Danae McNeal had six points. Raven Johnson buried a jumper from the free throw line at the buzzer to push East Carolina's lead to 13-8 after one quarter.
After High Point cut the lead to just 16-14 early in the second quarter, East Carolina went on a quick 5-0 run behind a Tylar Bennett second-chance layup and a Taniyah Thompson three, her second of the quarter, to take its biggest lead of the game. But a 9-2 High Point run, mainly coming on free throws helped the Panthers close the gap and the two teams went into the halftime break tied at 23.
After hitting a pair of triples in the first half, Thompson kept up her hot shooting and put the Pirate offense on her back in the third quarter. The junior shot 6-of-7, including 3-for-3 from beyond the three-point line, and scored 16 of East Carolina's 18 points in the third quarter. She also contributed on the defensive end, getting a pair of steals. But High Point came alive from the three-point alive as well, hitting four triples and outscoring ECU 19-18 to take a 42-41 lead into the final quarter.
Unfortunately for the Pirates, they could not get any offense going in the fourth quarter. ECU did not score for nearly six and a half minutes to start the final frame, allowing High Point to stretch its lead to 48-41. ECU was never able to get closer than five points the rest of the way as the Panthers shot 7-for-10 from the free throw line down the stretch.
Thompson finished with 28 points, one short of her career high, while also pulling down a team-high eight rebounds and grabbing two steals. It is the second time in her career that she has buried six three-pointers in a game, the first Pirate to do so twice in their career.
The Pirates outrebounded High Point 47-30, but uncharacteristically lost the turnover battle 24-15.
Cincinnati 72, Bellarmine 59
Four Bearcats players scored in double-digits as Cincinnati starts the season 2-0 after beating Bellarmine 72-59 Friday night in Fifth Third Arena.
The Bearcats shot 44.6% from the field goal line and were 5-15 (33.3%) from three point range. They out-rebounded the Knights 42 to 32 and had 13 steals along with eight blocks in the game.
The game started with Bellarmine getting to an early 5-0 lead. The Bearcats would chip away at the lead, however the game started off with nine turnovers. Bellarmine went on to shoot three straight three point shots to extend their lead 18-12. UC would score the last two baskets to finish the first quarter down 18-14.
The second quarter was chippy again, with seven turnovers. However fouls and free throws worked in the Bearcats favor as they slowly chipped away at the Knights lead to end the second quarter up one, 32-21.
Arame Niang, Akira Levy, and Taziah Jenks would own the third quarter, trading off shots to extend the Bearcats lead. The Bearcats would go on a 10-2 run before trading shots with Bellarmine. The 3rd quarter ended with the Bearcats largest lead of the game at the time, 56-40.
The fourth quarter was tight as Bellarmine wouldn't back down and kept making shots to shorten the Bearcats' lead until the final minutes of the game when the Bearcats went 4-4 from the free throw line to end the game with a win, 72-59.
Akira Levy played 33 minutes and led the team with 18 points, going 2-3 fom three point range, 6-11 from the field goal line and 4-5 from the free throw line. Arame Niang added another 16 points to along with eight rebounds and four blocks in 29 minutes of play.
Stephen F. Austin (RV) 73, Houston (RV) 52
Despite a career-high 17 rebounds from Tatyana Hill, the Houston women's basketball dropped a 73-52 contest to Stephen F. Austin on Friday night at William R. Johnson Coliseum.
Hill added nine points to her career-high 17 rebounds while Bria Patterson lead the team with 13 points. Turnovers proved to be detrimental to the Cougars as they collected 31 in the game.
The first quarter started as an even battle as the teams switched points. Five straight points from Patterson, followed by a layup from Hill pushed the Cougars to a 13-8 lead. But, four straight Stephen F. Austin free throws brought the score within one to close out the half, 13-12.
Tiara Young increased Houston's lead to 14-12 with a jumper but it was immediately met with a 12-0 run for the Ladyjacks as they pulled away with a 22-14 lead. The Cougars brought it within four on three free throws from Julia Blackshell-Fair and the two teams traded buckets going into halftime 30-26 for SFA.
Four minutes into the third quarter, the two teams tied it at 36-all before Houston scored seven straight points to take a 40-36 lead. However, the Ladyjacks finished the quarter with nine unanswered points to make the score 51-42.
Stephen F. Austin continued its momentum into the fourth quarter scoring 13-straight points to pull ahead. The Cougars finished the game with three straight free throws but it was too late as Houston took the loss 73-52.