Sunday, December 4
Tulsa 79, Lindenwood 46 – Box Score
East Carolina 69, VCU 51 – Box Score
SMU 70, California 56 – Box Score
LSU 85, Tulane 72 – Box Score
Kansas State 73, Houston 59 – Box Score
UIC 66, Cincinnati 58 – Box Score
Recaps
Tulsa 79, Lindenwood 46 – Box Score
TULSA, Okla. –– Tulsa (6-2) cruised to a 79-46 win over the Lindenwood Lions (0-7) Saturday afternoon at the Donald W. Reynolds Center behind a balanced attack with five players scoring in double digits.
Senior Maddie Bittle tied her season-high with 14 points, while junior Jessika Evans added 13, freshman Ahrray Young 12 and freshman Hadley Periman and sophomore Temira Poindexter chipped in with 11 points each. Poindexter also had game-highs of 10 rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots.
After its first basket of the game with 0:52 off the clock, the Hurricane held the lead for the entire 40 minutes, building its advantage to as many as 21 points, 33-12, in the opening half. Tulsa extended its lead to as many as 48 points, 73-35, in the final quarter of play.
Tulsa's defense held the Lions to just 29.8-percent from the field and 16.7-percetn from 3-point range for the game. The Hurricane finished the game shooting 49-percent from the field, while outdistancing the Lions for points in the paint 34-22. Tulsa also scored 20 points off Lindenwood turnovers and was 17-6 over the Lions for second-chance points.
Tulsa led from start to finish in capturing its fifth double-digit win of the season with a 79-46 victory.
With the score sitting at 5-4 at the 7:27 mark of the first quarter, the Hurricane went on a 12-0 run to take a 17-4 lead at the 2:25 mark on a Hadley Periman layup. Emily Benzschawel's 3-pointer snapped a 6:46 scoring drought for the Lions with 0:41 remaining in the first quarter.
Tulsa ended the first period by shooting 44-percent from the field and 50-percent from beyond the arc.
Tulsa scored only 16 second quarter points, but held a 35-15 lead at intermission, holding the Lions to the fewest first half points for an opponent through the first eight contests. The Hurricane ended the first half by shooting 42-percent from the field and holding the Lions to just 22.2 percent.
The third period saw Tulsa score over 20 points with a 23-point performance, while Lindenwood tallied 14 points, just one point less than the Lions scored through the entire first 20 minutes. Tulsa had a 21 to 17-point advantage against Lindenwood in the fourth period.
East Carolina 69, VCU 51 – Box Score
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The East Carolina women's basketball team got back in the win column with a 69-51 win over the VCU Rams on Sunday in Minges Coliseum. Danae McNeal led all scorers as the Pirates used their signature pressure defense to smother VCU.
The Pirates (6-3) jumped out early in the contest, racing to a 16-2 lead just six minutes into the game en route to a 27-8 first quarter. McNeal was excellent in the period, scoring nine points and knocking down a pair of triples. Freshmen Jayla Hearp and Bobbi Smith also hit from deep as ECU found the offensive burst it had been missing the last two games.
Though the game tightened in the second quarter, the Pirates still managed 18 points in the period to maintain a healthy 16-point lead going into the break. The 45 team's points scored in the first half was the most for ECU since Dec. 19, 2021 against UNCW when the team scored 46.
In the third quarter, ECU's defense took charge. Virginia Commonwealth (3-6) managed only three points in the quarter as the Pirates forced 11 turnovers - including six by the Rams' Sarah Te-Biasu. Te-Biasu entered the game as VCU's leading scorer at 16.0 points per game but was shut down by the Pirates, scoring only six points and racking up eight turnovers as the ECU defense applied near constant pressure to the junior guard.
The Pirates led by as much as 23 in the third, thanks to a six-minute 9-0 run, and wound up taking a 22-point margin into the final 10 minutes of action. Though VCU won the final period 19-15, it was far too little, far too late.
The Rams turned the ball over six more times in the fourth, accumulating 30 on the day. ECU turned the 30 takeaways into 30 points of their own while also racking up a matching 30 points in the paint.
In all, 10 players scored for East Carolina, including six who tallied seven-or-more points. That scoring added up, giving the Pirates a 27-25 margin in bench production. Ultimately, the only real area of tumult for the team was at the charity stripe where the Pirates hit only 14 of their 25 free throw attempts.
SMU 70, California 56 – Box Score
BERKELEY, Cal. – The SMU women’s basketball team defeated Pac-12 opponent California on Sunday at Haas Pavilion, 70-56. It marks the sixth game in a arow that the Mustangs have won.
Four Mustangs reached double-figures – Tamia Jones (17 pts), Savannah Wilkinson (16 pts), Jasmine Smith (16 pts) and Chantae Embry (13 pts).
Wilkinson and Embry both also led all players with nine rebounds.
The Mustangs offense was clicking on all cylinders all game, shooting 52.9 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from behind the arc. In the fourth quarter, SMU shot 8-for-11 from the field (72.7 percent) and made two of their four three pointers.
SMU forced 12 turnovers in the game, but was able to score 20 points off of the mistakes. The Mustangs held the Bears to 35 percent from the field and only allowed Cal to go to the charity stripe five times.
LSU 85, Tulane 72 – Box Score
NEW ORLEANS – The comeback bid by Tulane University Women's Basketball against No. 11 LSU fell short as the Wave dropped to 5-3 on the season with a 72-85 loss on Sunday in Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse. After storming back to within three at the end of the third quarter, the Green Wave was ultimately unable to keep pace with the Tigers being outscored by 10 in the fourth quarter.
Dynah Jones led all scorers in the contest with 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the floor and 4-of-7 from downtown. The New Orleans native scored 16 of her 25 in Tulane's 30-point third quarter. Marta Galic also finished with more than 20 points as she tallied 21 with four made three-pointers to go with seven rebounds. Rachel Hakes was the next top scorer for Tulane finishing with nine points while adding seven assists.
The Green Wave went back-and-forth with the Tigers through the first six minutes of the opening quarter exchanging the lead six times. After LSU built its largest lead of the frame, Tulane closed with the final three points to end the quarter trailing 20-27.
Both offenses slowed down in the second quarter as the Wave held the Tigers to 13 points on 35.3 percent shooting in the frame. Unfortunately, Tulane struggled to score in the quarter as well tallying eight points to hit the locker room facing a 28-40 deficit.
Jones caught fire in the third quarter scoring 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field including sinking four three-pointers. Her scoring output paced Tulane to a 30-point effort in the frame that was capped by an 11-0 run over the final two minutes to pull the Green Wave within three (58-61) heading into the fourth.
The momentum flipped back in favor of LSU in the final frame as Tulane trailed by as many as 13 points halfway through the quarter. The Wave was unable to keep the pace down the stretch against the Tigers being outscored by 10 in fourth quarter to ultimately fall 72-85.
Kansas State 73, Houston 59 – Box Score
MANHATTAN, Kan. – The University of Houston women's basketball team fell 73-59 at Kansas State on Sunday inside Bramlage Coliseum.
Houston (1-7) started furiously, making its first three shots of the game and first six of seven shots to open the contest. The hot start, on the back of a 52.9 percent shooting percentage from the field and the most first quarter points in a game this season, gave Houston a 20-17 lead through one quarter of play.
Junior Laila Blair led Houston with 16 points, her seventh-straight game in double-digits, and second time leading the team in scoring this season.
Even though the Cougars made more shots from the field than the Wildcats, 24-21, Kansas State (8-1) shot more than double the amount of free throw attempts as Houston in the game, 31-13, and made more than double as well, 26-7. The Wildcats also outscored the Cougars in the second quarter, 23-9, to take an 11-point lead at the half, 40-29.
The Wildcats' length held the Cougars to a sub-20 percentage from the field in the second and third quarters as they opened up a 55-37 lead through three periods.
Houston outscored the Wildcats 22-18 in the fourth quarter thanks to a 47.7 shooting percentage, but the Kansas State lead was too large to overcome.
The 73-59 loss is the first double-digit loss for the Cougars this season, showing the competitiveness of each game for Houston.
UIC 66, Cincinnati 58 – Box Score
CINCINNATI, Ohio – The University of Cincinnati women's basketball team fell to UIC 66-58 inside Fifth Third Arena on Sunday afternoon.
With the loss, Cincinnati drops to 5-4 on the season.
Junior guard Jillian Hayes turned in her sixth career 20-point game with a game-high 20 points on 9-16 from the field, in addition to six rebounds and five assists.
Sophomore forward/center Clarissa Craig earned her first career double-double with 11 points and a game-high 10 rebounds in her second-straight start, while senior guard Mya Jackson turned in her ninth straight double-digit scoring affair with 11 points and five assists.
Trailing 8-15 at the end of the first quarter, Cincinnati used an 8-0 run sparked by three Flames' turnovers over a minute to command the lead. The Bearcats finished the period connecting on their last five attempts, while holding their opponent scoreless over the final 2:43 minutes to secure a 30-23 halftime lead.
The Bearcats have led at half in seven of nine games this season.
Cincinnati opened up their largest lead of the game at 34-25 at the 7:30 mark of the third quarter on a finish in paint from Hayes. The Bearcats recorded 31 points in the paint, their fifth game with at least 30 points in the paint this season.
The team would trade momentum throughout the remainder of the third quarter as the Bearcats entered the final frame with a three-point lead.
UIC responded with an 8-2 run out of the break to take a 55-50 lead at the midway point in the fourth. The Bearcats battled to cut the margin to one possession but could not complete the comeback as a late Flames' run propelled them to the eventual final.