March 1, 2008

Box Score

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - -

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Twelve first half turnovers and a 23-16 rebounding edge favoring UCF (10-19, 3-13 C-USA) dug a hole too deep for the Lady Tiger basketball team (10-19, 7-9), Saturday afternoon. The 81-69 UCF victory cost Memphis a shot at finishing .500 in league play for the first time since 2003-04.

"We just missed too many rebounding assignments in the first half," Head Coach Blair Savage-Lansden said. "And you have to credit that to UCF, that's what they've done all year and they just stuck to their game plan tonight. They rebounded and worked the ball inside and when you give up 26 second chance points off offensive rebounds, you're digging yourself in to a deep hole."

That hole started opening up and swallowing up the Lady Tigers right at the tip. Memphis came out flat, despite it being the last home game of the year, and UCF was immediately aggressive from the tip, sprinting out to an 18-8 lead at the 11:42 mark off nine Lady Tiger turnovers, including four from Latoya Bullard, two from Aroha Jennings and one apiece from Alex Winchell and Paris Leonard.

But after an Angelica Mealing layup and one, which pushed the lead to 13 at 21-10, Jessica Hall stepped up to score eight straight points to cut the deficit to single digits, at 23-16 with 10:22 to play. A Jessica Jackson jumper whittled the deficit to five, but D'Nay Daniels answered back with a lay-up in the paint to push back out by seven. But Memphis kept working, as Jackson grabbed an offensive rebound in the corner and dished it over to a wide-open Jennings at the top of the key, starting a 6-0 run that cut the UCF lead to one at 25-24 with 4:51 to play.

UCF answered the run with a pair of free-throws, but Bullard found Jennings for another layup, then hit a pair of free-throws to give the Lady Tigers their first lead of the half at 28-27 with 2:53 to play. But the lead was short-lived as UCF got a layup from Daniels on the next possession. Jessica Hall answered back for Memphis, to put the Lady Tigers back in front at 30-29 with 2:27 to play, but a more energetic UCF squad forced two Memphis turnovers and took them in for easy layups to power a 9-0 run to go to the locker room up 38-30.

The second half started slow for Memphis as well, with UCF quickly stretching the lead to double-digits and leading by as many as 16 at 52-36 with 16:09 to play following a steal and jumper from Jelisa Caldwell.

Memphis answered that run with a 6-0 run to pull with 10 at 52-42 with 13:50 to play with Bullard, Alex Winchell and Savannah Ellis all coming in with good energy to power the Lady Tiger run, but UCF kept the Lady Tigers at by until another 6-0 Memphis run cut the lead to single digits at 56-49 off a Bullard layup with 10:20 to play.

But Memphis could never close on UCF as the Knights scored 20 points in the paint in the second half, including 14 second chance points off 10 offensive rebounds to keep Memphis at bay and to snap a two-game Lady Tiger win streak.

Jessica Hall led Memphis with 20 points, adding four rebounds in 38 minutes of play, while Latoya Bullard bounced back from a rough first half to finish with 13 points and 12 assists. Aroha Jennings scored eight points with six rebounds on her senior night, while Ashley Thornton added eight points and 11 rebounds in the loss.

Emma Cannon led UCF with 20 points and nine rebounds, while Chelsie Wiley scored 19 points with five assists. D'Nay Daniels was the third double-digit scorer for UCF, adding 18 points and nine rebounds, while Tia Lewis finished with eight points and 14 rebounds.

Memphis now awaits the results of the SMU at Tulane game to figure out who the Lady Tigers will play in the C-USA Championships, that begin Thursday at UCF. The brackets will be announced later this evening at www.gotigersgo.com.