C-USA Women’s Basketball Tournament Opening Day Recap

By Julia M. Coleman: SPM FL Writer
Posted Friday, March 7, 2008

ORLANDO, Fla – The Conference USA Women’s basketball tournament got underway at high noon at the new UCF Arena on Thursday, March 6th with an upset as No. 10 Tulsa overwhelmed No. 7 Memphis 85-63.

The Golden Hurricane placed five in double figures led by junior forward Chanel Johnson’s 19 points and eight rebounds. They managed to stretch a 10 point halftime lead into a 22 point winning margin. Tulsa also won the battle of the boards, taking down 37 for the game compared to 32 for the Memphis Lady Tigers.

Memphis sophomore guard LaToya Bullard paced the Lady Tigers with 27 points, eight assists, and only one turnover despite playing all 40 minutes of the game.

Tulsa moves on to face SMU on Friday, March 7 at noon in the second round.

The second game featured the #11 Tulane Green Wave against the #6 Thundering Herd of Marshall. In this second game, the higher seed prevailed as Marshall downed Tulane 65-58. The final score belies the true nature of the game as Tulane shot a lowly 17 percent for the first half as they allowed Marshall to head into the locker room with a 32-14 halftime advantage.

This was a hole the Green Wave could not dig out of even as Marshall cleared the bench and gave the starters plenty of rest in the second half. The Thundering Herd placed four in double figures with junior guard Casey Baker out in front with 18 points. The Green Wave were led by junior guard Ashley Langford with 20 points and five assists.

Marshall moves into the second round to face the #3 seed University of Alabama-Birmingham on Friday, March 07, at 2:30.

The C-USA tournament host, the No.12 seeded Knights of the University of Central Florida, took their home court at 5:30 facing the #5 Southern Miss Eagles. The Knights stated slow in front of the home crowd shooting just under 30 percent for the first half while the Eagles took a 33-26 lead into the locker room.

But the second half was a different story. Southern Miss junior guard Andrea Barber displayed poise and patience in face of a furious UCF full-court press. UCF managed to narrow the gap and closed to within two with three minutes left in the game. In the final 1:02, with Southern Miss up 67-59, UCF reeled off 13 points and fouled an Eagle on every possession.

The Eagles hit 7-8 free throws in the final minute, with Barber canning 5-6 to close the win.

Southern Miss placed all five starters in double figures, which is their norm, while UCF got 19 points and 13 rebounds from freshman forward Emma Cannon. Three other Knights scored in the double digits with freshman guard D’Nay Daniels next with 18 points.

Southern Miss moves on to play #4 Houston on Friday, March 07, at 5:30.

The final game on day one pitted #9 Rice against #8 East Carolina. Rice scored early and often quickly opening a 19-4 advantage in the first half, and repeated that fast start by scoring 18 of the first 22 points in the second half.

The Rice Owls won 69-55, led by two seniors, guard Kadie Riverin with 20 points and center Valeriy Berezhynska’s 12 points. The East Carolina Pirates were lead by their do-everything junior guard, LaCoya Terry who tallied 14 points, seven rebounds and four assists.

C-USA tournament action resumes on Friday, March 7 with four games on tap.