Saturday, January 7
South Florida 69, Wichita State 46 - Box Score
Temple 77, Cincinnati 73 - Box Score
Tulsa 80, UCF 75 - Box Score
Recaps
South Florida 69, Wichita State 46 - Box Score
WICHITA — The University of South Florida women's basketball team got a career-high tying 26 points from Sammie Puisis and 16 points from Elena Tsineke as the Bulls dominated Wichita State in the second half en route to a commanding 69-46 win at Charles Koch Arena. South Florida, who has won four straight games, and seven of its last nine, improve to 14-4 on the year and 3-0 in the American Athletic Conference. The Shockers fall to 11-5 overall and 1-2 in The American.
Joining Puisis and Tsineke in double digits was Carla Brito with 11 points. Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu had nine points and seven rebounds and Aerial Wilson dished out a season-high nine assists, one shy of her career-high.
After leading by as many as six points at the beginning of the second half, 16-10, off a baseline jumper by Tsineke for two of her 10 first-half points, the Bulls fought off the Shockers to take a slight 31-30 edge into the locker room at the break when Puisis beat the buzzer with a straight-on three. Puisis finished the first 20 minutes with 13 of her 26 points.
South Florida looked like a different team to start the second half scoring 20 of the first 24 points, including a 15-2 run, to take its biggest lead of the day, to that point, 51-34, on a jumper by Puisis with just over six minutes left in the third quarter. The Green and Gold ended the third stanza by hitting nine-straight field goals.
The Bulls eventually pushed the advantage to 20 points, 56-36, to end the quarter on a layup by Carla Brito with just over a minute left.
Wichita State never threatened South Florida in the second half as the Bulls outscored the Shockers, 38-16, in the final 20 minutes of play.
Temple 77, Cincinnati 73 - Box Score
CINCINNATI – The Temple women's basketball team downed the Cincinnati Bearcats on the road, 77-73. Guards Jasha Clinton and Aleah Nelson both scored over 20 points, with Clinton setting a new career benchmark of 28 points. Wing Tiarra East also put up her second double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
A'riel Jackson led the Bearcats with 19 points, going 8-9 from the line.
The game started out slow. The teams combined to shoot 4-18 from the field in the first five minutes. The Bearcats got out to a seven-point lead early (14-7). TU got hot as the quarter ran out. Temple ended the quarter on a 6-1 run, including five points from Nelson. Nelson scored 10 of Temple's 13 points in the first frame.
After just eight combined points in the first four minutes of the second quarter, Temple went on a 7-0 run in one minute of play to build a 25-18 lead going into the under-five media timeout. The Cherry & White stayed hot, powered by fantastic play from Clinton. The Owls built their lead up to as many as 11 points. Temple outscored Cincinnati 20-11 in the second quarter. Clinton outscored the entire Cincinnati roster with 13 points. Brittany Garner also impressed with four rebounds.
The Owls scored four points right out of the gate in the third quarter to force an early timeout by the Bearcats. Cincinnati could not stop the Owls offense, as Temple continued to pour on the points. TU shot for 7-11 in the first six minutes of the frame (48-39, TU). The teams traded baskets, with Cincinnati scoring six of the last eight in the quarter to cut the lead to seven. Denise Solis led all scorers in the quarter with six.
The final quarter featured 49 combined points, one of the highest scoring quarters this season in a Temple game. Cincinnati cut the lead down to as little two points with 5:32 left on the clock (63-61). With the lead at three points (70-67, TU) East hit a clutch three pointer and Garner scored an impressive post layup to give Temple an eight point cushion and seal the game.
Tulsa 80, UCF 75 - Box Score
ORLANDO - Four Tulsa players scored in double figures to lead Tulsa to an 80-75 win over UCF on Saturday afternoon at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando, Fla. The Golden Hurricane moved to 13-3 overall and 3-0 in American Athletic Conference play, while the Knights fell to 9-5 overall and 0-2 in the league.
Maya Mayberry posted a team-best 18 points, while Delanie Crawford added 16 points, and both Maddie Bittle and Temira Poindexter scored 14. Poindexter had team-bests of nine rebounds, five blocks, four steals and four assists.
Tulsa will return to action on Saturday, January 14 against Houston beginning at 1:00 pm at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
The Knights jumped out to a 14-5 lead with 5:17 on the clock, but TU put together a 10-0 run to take a 15-14 edge at the 1:55 mark. UCF, however, outscored Tulsa, 8-2, to close out the frame with a 22-17 advantage. The Knights forced the Golden Hurricane into seven turnovers in the first 10 minutes and scored 11 points off those turnovers.
TU started the second frame with a 7-2 run to tie the game at 24-24 with 6:33 on the clock. The Knights went up by five twice more in the second quarter, but owned just a two-point advantage, 35-33, at halftime.
UCF climbed to a six-point advantage, 44-38, with 7:55 on the clock in the third quarter, but back-to-back three's by Bittle and TU tied the game just 52 seconds later. The Knights were able to tie the score again at 46-all, but Tulsa never trailed the remainder of the frame, including a 55-52 lead with 10 minutes to play.
The Golden Hurricane climbed to a game-high nine point lead, 75-66, with 3:18 to play in the contest, but UCF went on a 7-0 run to pull within two, 75-73, with just 43 seconds on the clock. Mayberry hit a three and Katelyn Levings converted on both free throw attempts before Anzhane' Hutton scored a layup for the final 80-75 score.