Saturday, Feb. 27
Houston 67, No. 13 USF 49
University of Houston freshman guard Laila Blair scored 15 points with three steals to lead the Cougars to a 67-49 win over No. 13 USF inside Fertitta Center on Saturday afternoon.
The Cougars (15-5, 12-4 American Athletic Conference) jumped out to a 29-18 lead by halftime and never looked back in taking their first victory over a top-25 opponent since a 79-70 win over No. 21 Nebraska on Dec. 18, 2010. It also was the highest-ranked opponent the Cougars have knocked off since a 76-71 victory over No. 13 TCU on Feb. 27, 2004.
Collecting its seventh straight win, Houston connected on 46.7 percent from behind the arc while limiting the Bulls to only 19.0 percent (4-of-21). The Bulls entered the game with only one loss during the season and were undefeated in The American play.
Houston forced 24 USF turnovers and converted them into 26 points. The Bulls had averaged only 12.5 giveaways per game entering Saturday's contest.
Junior guard Dymond Gladney totaled 11 points with a pair of assists, while guard Britney Onyeje nearly finished with a double-double with eight points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
USF guard Elena Tsineke led all players with 24 points on 9-of-17 shooting. She was the only Bull to reach double digits.
With the loss, USF fell to 14-2 overall and 12-1 in The American play.
UCF 61, Temple 37
The UCF women's basketball team cruised to a 61-37 win over Temple on Saturday afternoon in Addition Financial Arena.
UCF (13-2, 11-1 The American) held Temple (9-10, 9-7 The American) to a 22.2 field goal percentage as the Knights extended their win streak to eight games.
Defensively, the Black and Gold held their third opponent of the season under the 40-point mark. The 37-point output for Temple marked the first time the Owls have scored under 40 points since No. 1 UConn limited them to 36 on Jan. 11, 2014.
Offensively, eight Knights registered at least two points. UCF scored at least 13 points in all four quarters.
Temple scored first, but UCF responded by scoring the next six points. The Knights held a 15-9 edge after the first 10 minutes of action.
Courtajia Sanders scored 12 of her 14 first-half points in the second quarter as the Knights built up a 31-14 lead at halftime. Sanders continued her hot hand in the opening minutes of the third quarter, scoring four quick points to push the UCF advantage to 20 points, which proved to be too much for the Owls to overcome.
UCF collected 15 offensive rebounds and scored 20 second chance points. The Knights held the rebounding edge, 47-34. The Black and Gold had 10 steals, scoring 15 points off turnovers and 14 fastbreak points.
Sanders matched her career high with 22 points and collected five of her eight rebounds on the offensive end. She also had a game-high four steals. Destiny Thomas chipped in a career-best 11 points and matched Sanders with eight boards. Alisha Lewis dished out a career-high eight assists.
East Carolina 81, Memphis 62
A second-half surge carried the ECU women's basketball team to an 81-62 win over Memphis on Sunday afternoon in the final home game of the season.
ECU (8-12, 6-9 AAC) shot a healthy 32-of-71 (.451) from the floor for the game, but that number shoots up to an eye-popping 20-of-30 (.667) in the second half and 5-of-7 (.714) from three in the second 20 minutes.
The Pirates were led in scoring by Maddie Moore who returned from a two-game absence to finish with 18 points, tying her career-high. Moore was one of four Pirates to finish in double-figures, as Synia Johnson finished with 13 while Taniyah Thompson and Sierra DaCosta each contributed 12 points. Johnson's 13 points represent a career-high for the freshman.
The early going looked bleak for the Pirates. Memphis held ECU to just six points over the first six minutes of the contest while Madison Griggs hit a trio of three-pointers for the Tigers to stake Memphis to an 18-6 lead. DaCosta sparked ECU to life a bit by knocking down a pair of three-pointers of her own to cut the deficit to 22-18 after a quarter of play.
In the second quarter, neither team could muster much offense as they combined for 23 points in the frame. ECU had chances to finally take its first lead of the game, but four missed free throws in the final minute allowed Memphis to take a slim 32-31 lead into the halftime break.
The third quarter seemed to be more of the same as ECU scored just two points over the first three minutes, allowing Memphis to push the lead back to five.
However, the Pirates turned up the heat on defense and that allowed them to also get things going on the offensive end. From the seven minute mark of the third quarter until the end of the frame, ECU went on a 21-6 run, with nine of those points coming off six Memphis turnovers. Ryann Evans was one of three Pirates who did not miss a shot in the third quarter, as Evans scored seven points on a three-pointer, a layup and a pair of free throws. Thompson added six points of her own in the frame and Johnson had five.
Leading 56-44 heading into the fourth, the Pirates quickly took that lead and doubled it. After a Memphis free throw to open the quarter, Monk nailed a triple and then turned a steal into a layup. After a Dominique Claytor steal, Monk set up Moore for a three-pointer of her own to push the lead to 19. The Pirate onslaught continued after a Memphis timeout, with Johnson turning a steal into a layup and then Monk assisted another triple from Moore. The run came to a close with a layup from DaCosta and once the dust settled, ECU led 71-45.
Memphis had its best stretch of the game right after. The Tigers went on a 10-0 run in just under two minutes, mainly thanks to Coriah Beck and Keke Hunter who scored all 10 points. But Moore answered for ECU, scoring layups on back-to-back possessions. Memphis never got within 15 points the rest of the way.
It is the second time this season that ECU has scored at least 80 points, the first coming in the season opener at Towson. It is the most points the Pirates have scored in Minges Coliseum since the season-opener of the 2018-19 campaign against Maryland Eastern-Shore.
The Pirates will close out the regular season on Tuesday evening as they head to New Orleans to battle Tulane. That game will get started at 7 pm., and will be broadcast on ESPN+.
Head Coach Kim McNeill Quotes
On the third quarter performance:
"Very similar to when we played them down there, they jumped on us early. It took us until the second half to figure out the flow of the game and to really dig in and buy into the game plan. The game plan didn't change from last time. We know they want to get that ball in the paint. We really focused on all week, just packing up the paint. Not allowing the big to go off on us like we did against Cincinnati. But I thought, defensively, we did a really good job. We were flying around and anticipating passes which allowed us to get out in transition and score a lot of points in transition which I think it's the first time we've shot 45% from the field and made 32 baskets. So when you're getting layups like that and you're finishing, it makes the game fun. It's fun to coach them when they play that way because we're playing to our identity."
On getting to 81 points:
"It's conference play. I told them in one of the timeouts that when you've got the opportunity to really put it on someone, put it on them and don't let off the gas. I thought we got a little bit sloppy there at the end breaking the press. Which we shouldn't because we got against it every single day going against ourselves. But overall, I thought it was a great game. We had four kids in double-figures, which is great and what I want. We turned them over 24 times, we had 19 steals and we had 29 points off of that. So I just thought it was a good total team effort."
On the feeling at this point in the season:
"Just trying to stay confident. Still trying to continue to get better. Every day we step out on that floor, it's an opportunity to get better. I just told the girls, this tournament is wide open. There's no dominant team out there. We've proven that we can play with any team in the league. So we should be feeling good about ourselves. Feeling confident that we can go in there and make some noise. Obviously, we have one game to finish out the conference season with Tulane who's playing very well right now and it's going to be a great test for us on Tuesday. But I feel good. We can play against anybody. When we bring it and play the way we know how to play and we play together, we can beat anybody in the league."
Senior guard Lashonda Monk quotes
On what clicked in the third quarter:
"Just my teammates and my coaches believing in me. My coaches always get on me, saying it's going to fall. You don't have to rush it. So I think that's kind of what I did. I kind of just let the game come to me. The second half, I just played my game."
On how getting out in transition helped shift the momentum:
"We work it on every day in practice. Transition, getting out, we do a lot of drills where we run and someone just launches the ball. So it's kind of us just implementing what we work on in practice. We want to score in transition so we just had to get out."
CIncinnati 71, Tulsa 58
IImar'I Thomas scored a game-high 28 points with nine rebounds and three blocks and Caitlyn Wilson added 20 points with six 3-pointers as Cincinnati won its second consecutive game, posting a 71-58 road win at Tulsa on Saturday.
With the effort Thomas moves into third place on UC's all-time scoring list with 1,853 points behind only Cheryl Cook (2,367 points from 1982-85) and Valerie King (2,156 points from 2001-04).
Thomas, who scored a school-record 51 points in UC's 76-61 win at East Carolina on Wednesday, did most of her scoring in the first and fourth quarters Saturday. She helped the Bearcats get off to a solid start with eight points on 3-of-5 shooting in the game's first 10 minutes and finished the contest with a 12-point fourth quarter thanks mostly to 8-of-10 shooting from the free throw line.
Thomas comes up one rebound shy of her fifth double-double of the season while registering her 15th 20-point game of 2020-21.
Wilson made four of her six threes in the first half, including three in the second quarter when UC ended the half on a 15-7 run to grab a 37-29 halftime lead.
Tulsa sisters Maya and Wyvette Mayberry accounted for 37 of Tulsa's 58 points. Maya Mayberry scored 10 of her team-high 22 points in the third quarter, including a layup with 5:39 left in the frame that pulled the Golden Hurricane within 41-38. Wyvette finished with 15 points for Tulsa.
Wilson answered for the Bearcats, hitting consecutive 3-pointers to give UC a 47-38 lead at 4:00 in the third quarter.
Thomas had a personal 9-0 run for UC midway through the fourth quarter, giving the Bearcats their largest lead of the day at 68-51 with 1:29 remaining.
Jillian Hayes contributed eight points, eight rebounds, eight assists and three steals for the Bearcats. Milan Schimmel added seven points, seven assists and six rebounds.