The Memphis Women’s basketball team entered the American Athletic Conference tournament as the #2 seed after winning 7 games in a row to end the season and finishing with a 19-9 record overall including 11-4 in AAC play. A huge upset was delivered earlier in the day when #1 seed and NCAA tournament-bound, South Florida, suffered a loss to Wichita State opening the path for the Tigers to steal an NCAA tournament bid.
The Central Florida Knights entered the AAC tournament as the #10 seed and upset the #7 seed Tulsa Golden Hurricane on Monday to advance to play the Memphis Tigers on Tuesday evening. The Tigers defeated the Knights in their only matchup this season in overtime, 50-48, on February 11th at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse.
The teams began this tournament contest scoreless for the first two minutes of the game before Emani Jefferson made a layup to put the Tigers up 2-0. UCF responded with a three to take the lead and proceeded to lead for the majority of the game until the final 22 seconds when Emani Jefferson got fouled on an offensive rebound and hit two free throws to put the Tigers up 46-45. After a couple of last-second defensive stops, the Tigers escaped with a 48-46 win over the Knights.
In this low-scoring contest, Emani Jefferson led the Tigers with 15 points and 7 rebounds as leading scorers Jamirah Shutes and Madison Griggs struggled shooting a combined 6-27 including 0-7 from three and combining for only 13 points. The Tigers did not hit a three-point shot in this game but made up for it by grabbing 18 offensive rebounds. The Tigers trailed 28-16 at halftime and used tough defense and 2nd chance points to claw their way back to victory in a game in which both teams shot below 30%.
“Survive and advance” is the strategy for this time of the year and the Tigers did just that. They will play the #3 seed East Carolina Pirates in the Semifinals of the AAC tournament Wednesday night at 6 pm for a chance to advance to the AAC championship game on Thursday night.