Saturday, December 3
Wichita State 79, New Orleans 61 – Box Score
Temple 68, UMBC 53 – Box Score
SMU 84, Gardner-Webb 71 – Box Score
Auburn 86, UCF 46 – Box Score
South Carolina 79, Memphis 54 – Box Score
Recaps
Wichita State 79, New Orleans 61 – Box Score
WICHITA, Kan. – Wichita State extended its win streak to six with a 79-61 win over New Orleans Saturday afternoon in Charles Koch Arena.
The win streak for Wichita State (7-1) is the longest since 2015 when the Shockers won 12 in a row.
Trajata Colbert scored a team-high 19 points to go with nine rebounds and a pair of blocks. She scored nine of her 19 points at the free throw line. DJ McCarty recorded her third straight game in double figures with 17, while adding seven rebounds and five assists. Ornella Niankan scored a season-high 11 points off the bench.
Wichita State splashed in a season-high eight three-pointers and shot 46 percent overall. They also converted at the free throw line, going 19-of-23. Defensively, Wichita State held New Orleans to 36 percent shooting.
Wichita State shot out of the gate, scoring the game's first 10 points behind six New Orleans turnovers and a perfect start from the field. After a New Orleans three-pointer broke up the shutout, Wichita State answered back with seven straight to take a 17-3 lead.
At one-point Curtessia Dean was outscoring the Privateers by herself with nine points on a perfect 4-of-4 start from the floor. After 10 minutes Wichita State held a 21-11 lead.
Wichita State scored the final six points of the second quarter to take its largest lead of the half, 39-24, into the break. New Orleans had the deficit in single digits on two different occasions in the second period, but back-to-back scores from Ambah Kowcun stretched it back to double figures.
Colbert and Dean led the Shockers with nine points apiece at halftime, followed by Niankan with eight. Wichita State was efficient on the offensive end, shooting 56 percent, and stingy on the defensive end. New Orleans committed 12 first half turnovers and was just 9-of-28 from the field.
A sluggish third quarter allowed the Privateers to hang around. Wichita State was just 5-of-15 in the period and New Orleans outscored the Shockers 20-15, but luckily still maintained a 10-point lead heading to the final quarter.
Wichita State kept the lead in double digits the whole fourth quarter and extended the lead to as many as 17 behind 10 fourth quarter points from McCarty. Colbert added seven in the frame as the duo combined for 17 of Wichita State's 25 points in the quarter.
Temple 68, UMBC 53 – Box Score
PHILADELPHIA – The Temple women's basketball team (3-5, 0-0 American) took down the UMBC Retrievers (2-5, 0-0 America East) 68-53 as the second half of a doubleheader Saturday afternoon. The game was tight until the fourth quarter, where the Owls outscored UMBC 22-7 to seal the win.
Temple rolled in the first five minutes, jumping out an early 10-5 lead. The Owls kept the advantage around five until the 2:30 mark, where UMBC counter punched scoring 9 of the last 12 points in the frame to take a slim lead into the second. TU was balanced in the first period, with five different Owls scoring. Ines Piper stood out with four points and four rebounds.
The Retrievers extended their lead to five (22-17) before the Owls got hot with a 9-0 run (26-22). UMBC returned serve with six straight to retake the lead at 27-26. The two sides traded buckets down the stretch, with Aleah Nelson knocking down a free throw in the final second to give the Owls the lead. Nelson led all scorers in the first half with 12 points.
The scoring was slow early in the third, with five combined baskets in the first six minutes of the quarter. The Owls held a 39-36 advantage for three scoreless minutes. The Retrievers scored two baskets in quick succession to retake the lead (41-39). The last two minutes of the quarter featured an intense back-and-forth. Tarriyonna Gary scored five of Temple's final seven points to give TU a 46-44 lead with 23 seconds left. UMBC scored a layup with 3 seconds left to tie things up heading into the final frame. Gary was responsible for eight of Temple's 14 points in the quarter.
Temple scored the first six points of the fourth to take a 52-46 lead. UMBC hit a three to cut into the lead, but the Retrievers could not stop the Owls' onslaught. Temple matched the Retrievers blow for blow until it was 58-52 when Temple turned on the jets. With 3:13 remaining, Temple began a 10-0 run that pushed the to lead to double-digits and sealed the win. Tiarra East scored nine of her 11 points in the final frame.
SMU 84, Gardner-Webb 71 – Box Score
BERKELEY, Calif – Hot shooting fueled an 84-71 SMU triumph over Gardner-Webb at Haas Arena Saturday.
The Mustangs converted 61.1% (33-54) from the field, including 18 of 26 (69.2%) in the second half.
SMU moved to 6-2 on the season, while the Runnin' Bulldogs dropped to 5-3.
Ella Brow made her first collegiate start, tallying six points, six rebounds, a team-high six assists, a block and a steal.
After a jumper from Layken Cox cut the Mustangs' halftime to 34-33, just 26 seconds into the second half, SMU ran off the next 12 points. Lauren Bevis stopped the spurt with a triple, closing the margin to 46-36 but the Mustangs answered with a 15-2 spurt. Jasmine Smith's 3-point bucket with 1:43 remaining in the period increased the Mustangs margin to the largest of the contest at 23 (61-38).
Smith paced a quartet of Mustangs in double figures with 18, hitting 7 of 9, including 3 of 3 beyond the arc. She added eight rebounds, four assists, a steal and a block. Chantae Embry netted 16 points, while Savannah Wilkinson totaled 15. Tamia Jones chipped in with 10.
SMU never trailed, grabbing the lead when Smith opened the scoring with a layup 13-seconds in. The Mustangs knocked down 9 of 14, with 12 points coming in the paint to open a six-point gap after one. SMU held Gardner-Webb to 33.3% (6-18) from the field.
In the second, the Runnin' Bulldogs utilized the long ball to slice into the deficit, trailing 34-31 at the half. The Runnin' Bulldogs knocked down five shots in the quarter, with four from 3-point range.
Following the third quarter, Gardner-Webb posted 25 points, the most successful stanza for the Runnin' Bulldogs. The Mustangs maintained their advantage, draining 7 of 10 from the field and 7 of 9 at the free-throw line.
Auburn 86, UCF 46 – Box Score
AUBURN, Ala. – The UCF women's basketball team fell for the first time this season, as Auburn earned an 86-48 win on Saturday afternoon at Neville Arena.
Auburn (6-2) used a big first quarter to jump out to a 21-6 lead and a big second quarter to go into the break up 46-26.
The third quarter was the only quarter the Knights (6-1) outscored the Tigers, outscoring them 16-14.
The fourth was much like the first two, and the Knights fell 86-48.
Laila Jewett led UCF in scoring with nine points.
Auburn's defense gave the Knights issues, holding them to 22.4% shooting and 0-for-8 from three. Conversely, the Tigers shot 47.8% from the field and made six threes. They also had nine blocks.
South Carolina 79, Memphis 54 – Box Score
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Playing against their second top-10 team in seven days, the Tigers made the trip to Columbia, South Carolina to take on the No. 1 ranked Gamecocks. While Memphis had a fast start, South Carolina's offense would be hard to stop and faced the 79-54 loss.
Following today's game, Memphis moves to 4-4 overall.
Opened with back-to-back buckets from Madison Griggs and Lanetta Williams to take a 5-0 lead. After South Carolina came back with four unanswered points, Jamirah Shutes would push the Memphis lead out to 8-4 with a three-pointer from the corner with 6:28 left in the opening quarter.
The Gamecocks would make their offensive run with 12 points from Kamilla Cardoso. Memphis would be held scoreless for the final 3:30 and face the 27-14 deficit heading into the second quarter.
Hannah Riddick helped to set the pace for the Tigers in the second half with a bank-shot from the free throw line in their first possession. Shutes and Destyne Jackson would follow suit with baskets on Memphis' next two trips down the floor to cut the Gamecocks lead to 27-20.
Just as fast as the Tigers made their comeback, South Carolina would go for eight straight points to push their lead out to 15.
As the clock wound down, Memphis would try to cut into the Gamecocks lead, but South Carolina would add in lay-ups from Cardoso and Brea Beal to take the 43-26 lead into the break.
Memphis would go shot for shot with South Carolina to start the second half with Griggs and Tanyuel Welch draining back-to-back three-pointers to cut their deficit to 47-34 with 4:08 left in the quarter.
While Welch and Emani Jefferson added in buckets with less than three minutes to play in the quarter, the South Carolina defense would hold the Tigers scoreless for the final 2:55 of the third and face the 60-40 score heading into the final 10 minutes of play.
The Tigers fought until the final buzzer, getting eight of their 14 fourth-quarter points from the charity stripe from Riddick, Jackson, Jefferson, Williams and Welch. Despite Memphis' efforts to cut into South Carolina's lead, they would suffer the 79-54 loss.
Jamirah Shutes and Destyne Jackson led the team with 10 points each while Emani Jefferson pulled down a team-high seven rebounds while going 6-8 from the free throw line.
As a team, Memphis shot 32% from the field and forced the Gamecocks into 12 turnovers