Tulsa Dropped 69-53 Decision Against UCF in The American First Round

Monday, March 6

Fort Worth, Texas (Dickies Arena)

3:00 pm

Tulsa

17-13,7-9AAC

UCF

14-14,4-11AAC

UCF

Tulsa

Photo by: American Athletic Conference

Tulsa Dropped 69-53 Decision Against UCF in The American First Round

3/6/2023 5:14:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

Tulsa's seventh-seeded women's basketball team dropped a 69-53 decision to 10^th-seeded UCF in the American Athletic Conference First Round on Monday afternoon at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. The Golden Hurricane fell to 17-13 on the season, while the Knights moved to 14-14 overall.

Tulsa was led by Temira Poindexter with 16 points, while Delanie Crawford had seven rebounds and Hadley Periman had six assists.

Tulsa will await the WNIT bracket announcement to see if their season continues.

How it Happened
Neither team led by more than four points in the first quarter, there were three lead changes and two tied scores, and the frame ended with the Golden Hurricane owning a one-point advantage, 13-12. Temira Poindexter had nine of TU's first quarter points.

Poindexter came out in the second frame and hit a three-pointer and a layup to give TU a six-point lead, 18-12, at the 8:59 mark, forcing the Knights to call a timeout. Maddie Bittle added a layup to make it an eight-point advantage, but then Poindexter was called for a technical foul, which earned her two fouls, and she went to the bench for the rest of the frame.

UCF chipped away at the deficit and came back to tie the game at 22-22 with 6:09 on the clock in the second quarter. The game was tied twice more and there were three more lead changes before the Knights took a 30-29 advantage into halftime.

UCF took their own eight-point lead, 41-33, at the 5:28 mark of the third quarter and inched ahead to an 11-point advantage, 54-43, to end the frame.

Tulsa struggled to shoot the ball in the fourth quarter, going scoreless until Caroline Lyles hit a three-pointer at the 5:02 mark, snapping an 11-0 run by the Knights that gave them a 22-point advantage, 65-43.

UCF had a 65-49 lead at the 3:43 mark when Poindexter was issued her second technical foul of the game and was ejected from the contest. Both teams scored four points to close out the game with the Knights earning a 69-53 victory.

Game Notes

Tulsa now sits with a 17-13 overall record.
Tulsa fell to 5-9 in American Athletic Conference tournament games.
This was the 26th meeting between Tulsa and UCF, and the third meeting this season … the series now stands at 17-9 in favor of UCF.
Tulsa faced UCF in back-to-back games after earning a 70-60 win over the Knights in the final regular season game. This was the fourth time Tulsa played a team back-to-back with the regular season finale and the first conference tournament game.
This was the eighth straight game that Tulsa was without 3 of its top 7 scorers – Ahrray Young (8.6), Jessika Evans (6.8) and Katelyn Levings (6.0), all missing due to injury … in all, Tulsa missed 21.4 points between the three players … in all, Young has missed 10 games, Evans has missed 19 games and Levings has missed 16 games this season.
It was the 12th time this season that Tulsa trailed after the first quarter, and Tulsa is now 4-8 on the season when trailing after the first period.
Tulsa trailed at halftime for the eighth straight game.
Temira Poindexter had her 27th double-digit scoring game of the season and 45th of her career in 58 career games played.
Poindexter scored 14 of Tulsa's first 18 points.
Poindexter scored double-digit points (14) in the first half for the ninth time this season.
With six points today Maddie Bittle now has 971 career points to move past Candice Brewer (2001-04) for 14th place on the school's career scoring chart.
Bittle has now played in 127 career games to place second on the school's career games played chart behind Rebecca Lescay's (2017-22) 139 games played.