DALLAS, Texas – UCF women's basketball dropped its first American Athletic Conference game at SMU on Tuesday night in the Moody Coliseum. The Knights (9-4, 0-1 AAC) came out strong in the first half but SMU (10-4, 1-1 AAC) quickly answered back in the second half with a final score of 61-51.
SMU started off with a layup but the Black and Gold came back with a 6-0 spurt to take the lead. The Mustangs tied the game up and took the lead with less than two minutes left in the first. Destiny Thomas hit a jumper to knot it back up, 10-10. Both teams scored a free throw before the buzzer to take the score to 11-11.
Mya Burns led off the second with a layup to take back the lead, followed by a trio of 3-pointers from Rachel Ranke (2) and Sierra Godbolt (1). SMU went on a 6-0 run to close the scoring gap to three. Anzhane Hutton scored a layup to make it a five-point difference. The Mustangs hit back-to-back layups to go into the locker room down by one, 25-24.
The Mustangs came out in the second half by taking the lead, then Hutton answered back to tie it up, 26-26, followed by a 3-pointer from Ranke. SMU took the lead and went on a 6-0 scoring run to take the lead and keep it for the remainder of the game.
Ranke led the Knights with 11 points and five rebounds. Hutton followed up with 10 points and nine rebounds. Thomas recorded nine points and 10 rebounds, just shy of a double-double.
The Knights will host Tulsa for their conference home opener on Saturday, Jan. 7 with tip-off slated for 1 p.m.
