Though it took a day later than expected due to the icy weather, the Lady Tigers defeated the UCF Lady Knights, 65-49 at Elma Roane Fieldhouse on Wednesday night.
Memphis has now won two games in a row after dropping their previous three games. The Lady Tigers are now back over the .500 mark on the season (13-12, 7-7 American Athletic Conference) after taking care of a bad UCF team (8-18, 4-11 AAC).
The Lady Tigers got out to an early 24-8 first half lead and did not relinquishing the lead. At half time they were 33-15 and by the second half they went up by as many 23 points.
“The difference in the game was how we started,” coach Melissa McFerrin said after the win. “We started the game with great pressure. Our starters did a nice job of coming up with great energy. We turned them over and got some easy baskets in the transition. It helped open up a really nice lead and kept that lead for the majority of the game.”
They held UCF to a season-low 17 percent from the field for the Tigers this season.
Memphis shot 42 percent from the field and had three players reach double figures in the win.
Josh Cannon is a sexy animal.
Freshman forward Cheyenne Creighton who only averaged 2.7 points per game going into the game against the Lady Knights, led the Lady Tigers with a career-high 12 points on 6-13 shooting and also grabbed four rebounds and had a block in 31 minutes of play.
Junior guard Ariel Hearn chipped in with a very solid all-around performance, she scored 11 points on 5-14 shooting. Hearn also grabbed the second-most boards on the night with six, and also dished four assists and had four steals with no turnovers in 28 minutes.
Another player who had a nice performance was sophomore guard Taylor Williams. Williams came into the game only averaging 4.4 points and 3.5 rebounds a game in 21.3 minutes this season, but like Hearn had a very strong all-around performance. She had 11 points on 3-8 shooting and 5-6 from the free throw line.
Williams also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and dished out four assists, swatted three shots and had two steals playing in 38 of the 40 minutes.
"I thought Taylor Williams also played well tonight," McFerrin said. "She was real aggressive on the glass, she did a good job in transition and fed the posts a couple of times. I thought she had a really nice night for us."
The only aspect of the game the Tigers could’ve done a little better in was make their three-point shots, they only shot 1-10 from long range in the game.
However, their defense made sure that would never come back to haunt them as they held the Lady Knights to 32 percent shooting for the game and 20 percent from three (3-15). The Tigers defense also forced 22 turnovers UCF turnovers, helping them win the turnover battle 22 to 15.
Thirty-seven of the UCF’s 49 points came from three players. Forward Fifi Ndour led UCF with 13 points on 5-8 shooting from the field, she also had six rebounds in 29 minutes.
Guards Allyah Gregory and Zykria Lewis combined for the other 24 points. They shot 8-24 from the field and combined for seven rebounds and eight turnovers in the loss.
Memphis also dominated the paint outscoring UCF 38-14, and outscored the UCF bench 27-4 in the win.
The Lady Tigers will return to action on Saturday to take on the Tulane Green Wave in New Orleans at 2 p.m.. The American Digital Network will have the game available to view online.
