ORLANDO – The UCF women's basketball team closed out the regular season with the first Top 15 win in program history, posting a 58-45 win over No. 14 South Florida in Addition Financial Arena on Thursday evening.
UCF (14-3, 12-2 The American) split the regular season War on I-4 meetings with the Bulls (15-3, 13-2*). The American has declared a forfeit win for USF against Memphis for conference-standings purposes only as a result of the scheduled game from Jan. 17 that was not played. The teams' overall records are not affected.
In a reversal of what happened on Tuesday, UCF came out fired up. Masseny Kaba scored 10 of the Knights' 18 points in the first quarter. The Black and Gold shot 57.1 percent from the floor while holding the Bulls to 20 percent from the field.
The Knights continued to push in the second frame, as Kaba scored less than 30 seconds in to put the Black and Gold in front 20-8. UCF continued its strong showing in the second frame to take a 32-23 lead into the locker rooms.
UCF and South Florida matched each other basket for basket in the third quarter, giving the Knights a 44-35 advantage into the final 10 minutes.
The Knights maintained a double digit lead mostly the entire final quarter. Brittney Smith gave UCF its largest advantage, 51-37, with 6:58 left in the game and the Knights never led the Bulls get closer than 10 points over the remainder of the game.
The UCF defense once again came up, holding the Bulls to a 25.5 field goal percentage for the game. On the flipside, the Knights shot 47.8 percent from the floor.
The Knights also held a 34-8 advantage in the paint and scored 23 points off 15 South Florida turnovers.
UCF has now won five of the last six meetings against the Bulls. The only UCF victory over a ranked opponent came on Feb. 14, 2017 when the Knights defeated then-No. 22 South Florida in Tampa.
Four Knights finished in double figures. Masseny Kaba led all scorers with 16 points and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds. Brittney Smith added 13 points. Diamond Battles had 11 points, dished out seven assists and had a game-high five steals. Alisha Lewis chipped in 10 points with four assists.
UP NEXT
UCF heads to the 2021 Air Force Reserve American Athletic Conference Championship as the No. 2 seed. The Knights open on March 9, playing the winner of the No. 7-No. 10 matchup at 7 p.m. ET in Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
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