Tulsa Falls to UCF 47-44

Saturday, January 27

Reynolds Center

2:00 pm

Tulsa

8-13, 2-6AAC

UCF

14-7, 6-2AAC

UCF

Tulsa

Tulsa Falls to UCF 47-44

1/27/2018 4:24:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Final Stats in PDF l Final Stats in HTML l Season Stats in PDF

Tulsa's Shug Dickson scored a game-high 23 points, but it wasn't enough as UCF pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 47-44 win Saturday afternoon in a low-scoring game at the Donald W. Reynolds Center. Neither team scored more than 17 points in a quarter, as the Knights had a 17-to-15 scoring advantage in the final 10 minutes.

Tulsa fell to 8-13 overall and 2-6 in the American Athletic Conference, while the Knights improved to 14-7 and 6-2 in league play.

Dickson converted 8-of-18 from the field and 5-of-5 from the free throw line for her fifth 20-point scoring game of the season. Tyjae' Scales grabbed a career-high 14 rebounds for the Hurricane. UCF was led by Zakiya Saunders' 20 points.

"We did everything we wanted to do. We didn't have a lot of turnovers against their pressure, we rebounded with them and we did a lot of good things, but we just couldn't get anything going offensively," said Tulsa head coach Matilda Mossman. "Shug attacked, and that was our goal going in, to have our guards attack more. She attacked, and despite missing some shots early, she was able to get it to go down later in the game."

It was a close game throughout with seven lead changes and neither team taking more than an eight-point lead in the contest. UCF led by eight points twice within the first five minutes of the third quarter.

Each of quarter ended on a buzzer-beater – Tulsa's Dickson had a three-pointer at the end of the first period and a two-point basket at the end of three periods, while UCF's Kayla Thigpen scored a trey as time expired in the first half. Tulsa's Alexis Gaulden knocked down a three-pointer at the end of the game, cutting Tulsa's final deficit to three points.

UCF scored the first five points of the second half to take an eight-point lead, 26-18, with 6:41 left in the quarter. Dickson's jumper as time expired closed the gap to one-point at the end of three periods with the Knights on top 30-29.

Tulsa's Kendrian Elliott scored the first basket of the fourth quarter to give the Hurricane a 31-30 lead. The score was tied at 35 with 6:29 remaining in the game, before the Knights scored the next four points for a 39-35 lead. Tulsa's Erika Wakefield cut the Hurricane deficit to two points, 39-37, with 3:06 to play, but it was as close as Tulsa would get the rest of the way.

The teams started the game out slowly as the score after one period was just 10-9, thanks to a Dickson three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Hurricane the one-point lead. The teams also combined for 12 first-quarter turnovers, compared to just one assist apiece.

UCF scored the first five points of the second quarter to take a 14-10 lead in the first 2:40 of the period. The Hurricane scored the next four points to tie the score at 14-14, while the Knights went scoreless for nearly five minutes, going without a point from 7:30 to 2:39.

Saunders stopped the USF drought with a layup at the 2:39 mark. Tulsa broke a scoreless streak of their own when Dickson's jumper knotted the score at 16 with 2:15 left in the first half, giving the Hurricane its first basket since the 6:16 mark.

Thigpen's three-pointer as the horn sounded broke a tie game and put the Knights ahead at halftime, 21-18. For the first 20 minutes, both teams shot an identical 33.3 percent from the field.

Tulsa will be back at the Donald W. Reynolds Center on Wednesday night to face the 23^rd-ranked USF Bulls at 7:00 p.m.