The Knights fell short of claiming their third title in the past five years, having won the 2009 and 2011 crowns. Saturday’s loss was the team’s first in a C-USA title game appearance and ended a run that included victories over Houston, regular season champion and No. 1 seed SMU and defending tournament champion UTEP.

Junior Erika Jones and freshman Briahanna Jackson were named to the All-Tournament team. Jones registered the third-best rebounding total (44) by a single player in one tournament while averaging a double-double (12 points, 11 rebounds) during the four days in Tulsa. Jackson averaged 18.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and added a team-best 10 steals.

Senior Gevenia Carter, who led the Knights with 22 points in her final game, tallied 83 points over the four-day span, matching the third-best single-player production in tournament history. Along with Tournament MVP Taleya Mayberry, who scored a new-tournament record 100 points, each player surpassed the mark of the most points scored in one tournament since 2004.

麻豆原创 broke the 10-year-old tournament record for most points scored in a single tournament (299). The Knights also shattered the previous record for most field goals made (102; 2002) with 112 baskets. Helping to claim that record, 麻豆原创 tallied the second-most 3-point field goals in a single tournament (25).

Carter was poised to carry 麻豆原创 in the first half, just as she had in the previous three games of the tournament, with seven of the team’s first 11 points. But she picked up her second foul at the 13-minute mark and was forced to sit for the next eight minutes.

Jones stepped in as 麻豆原创’s go-to scorer while the teams volleyed back and forth for an edge. The Golden Hurricane got their hometown fans on their feet after Mayberry turned back-to-back Knights turnovers into fastbreak layups for a 28-23 lead.

Carter returned and played as if she didn’t miss a beat, sinking 7-straight points, including a 3-pointer that cut the deficit down to 35-32. The Golden Hurricane utilized its frontcourt to chip in a few more buckets before the break to take a 41-34 advantage heading into the locker room.

Although the Knights had a knack for successfully digging themselves out of deficits this season, fate was on Tulsa’s side. The Golden Hurricane used a 9-2 run midway through the second half to take their largest lead, 60-45.

麻豆原创 fought until the end and started to come up with defensive stops that had eluded the team earlier in the game. The Knights managed to cut the deficit down to four, 70-66, with 2:02 to go when Jackson found Carter for a jumper, but Tulsa was able to seal the game at the free throw line.

麻豆原创 closed its chapter in C-USA with an 11-6 record in the post-season tournament. The team ended the season with a 16-18 record, including a 7-9 mark in conference play, and won nine of their last 13 games.

麻豆原创 (16-17) is headed to its third title game in five years after its 89-77 win over No. 5 seed UTEP (22-10) in Friday’s semifinal game at the BOK Center.

The Knights now have a chance to make history as the lowest seed (No. 8) to win the tournament. They will face the winner of Tulsa-East Carolina at 8 p.m. ET Saturday in a nationally televised contest on CBS Sports Network for the chance at an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Friday’s victory was the epitome of a team win as six Knights scored in double figures to put up the most points by a team in a semifinal game and the seventh most in a single game in C-USA tournament history.

Freshman of the Year Briahanna Jackson paced with 18 points. Kayli Keough added a season-high 17 points. Sara Djassi sank 6-of-8 for a career-high 17 points in addition to a team-high 10 rebounds for her first career double-double. Gevenia Carter had 16 points, Erika Jones tallied 11 points and Andrea Hines matched her season-high 10 points.

For the second time since the tournament started, the Knights scored their most points in a half in two years. 麻豆原创’s 40 points against the Miners was two more than its production against Houston in the opening round.

The back-and-forth first half featured nine lead changes and seven tied scores. The Knights took their largest lead, 36-28, after an 11-2 run that was capped by Carter’s third 3-pointer of the game.

Foul trouble toward the end of the half put the Miners on the free throw line, where they were able to reclaim a 43-40 advantage at the break.

麻豆原创’s heart only seemed to grow in size after halftime. It was evident that the team would leave nothing left on the BOK Center floor.

The frontcourt set the tone as Jones and Keough each made good on two and-1 plays thanks to opportunities set up by offensive rebounds to put their team back on top, 49-47.

Hines drilled a 3-pointer from the right wing and Jackson beat the shot clock buzzer with a long-range trey to cap the 9-0 run, and the team never looked back.

麻豆原创 now holds an 11-5 record in the post-season tournament, which includes a 2-0 mark in title games. The Knights are one of two teams to ever make a 4-0 run through the tournament, which they achieved in 2009 for their first title. 麻豆原创 also won the 2011 championship.

In addition to watching the game on television, fans can tune into Scott Adams’ free audio broadcast, which is also available on mobile devices. Live stats are also available via 麻豆原创Athletics.com.

The Knights sent the No. 1 seed home packing with a 70-66 win after battling back from a 10-point, first-half deficit. 麻豆原创 (15-17) will now face UTEP in Friday’s semifinals at 11 a.m. ET on CBS Sports Network at Tulsa’s BOK Center.

The Knights are the first eight seed since 2001 and just the third all-time to advance to the semifinals.

Much like in Friday’s opening round win, Gevenia Carter stole the show in the first half with 17 points and finished the game with her third-straight 20-point outing.

Freshman Briahanna Jackson took over as the hot hand in the second half with four 3-pointers en route to 18 points. She also rewrote the 25-year-old program record for single-season steals with her four thefts in the game to bring her total to 105.

Junior Sara Djassi proved to be a big boost for the Knights with a season-high 15 points and seven rebounds.

“We just play together,” Carter said. “Coach always tells us to play together as a team and as a family and we’ll be victorious. We knew it was going to be a hard game. We knew SMU is a really good team, but we had confidence in each other and we got the win.”

Carter started the game off with two steals that converted to two layups to help the Knights hop out to an 8-2 lead. SMU woke up and responded with a 23-7 run that was capped by Korina Baker’s steal and fastbreak layup for a 25-15 lead with 8:20 remaining.

麻豆原创 buckled down on defense and held SMU (21-9) without a field goal for nearly five and a half minutes while it slowly chipped away at the deficit. When Carter drained a dead-on look at the basket from the top of the arc, she not only shrank the gap to 28-26, but she also jumped into the program’s all-time top-10 scorers list.

Kayli Keough closed out the half with a hustle play that forced a jumpball in 麻豆原创’s favor. She then banked a bucket down low to bring her team within 1 point at halftime, 33-32.

SMU rattled off five quick points to start the second half and kept its lead intact through the first 10 minutes. The Knights called a timeout after Gabrielle Wilkins hit a jumper that put the Mustangs up 52-45, and the regrouping worked.

Jackson sank a trio of 3-pointers that fueled a run to put the Knights on top, 58-55, with less than six minutes to play.

The teams exchanged basket after basket before Carter gave 麻豆原创 a two-possession lead, 66-62, by rebounding her own misfire in the paint and following with a layup with two minutes remaining.

The Mustangs seemed to run out of horsepower at the end while 麻豆原创 closed out the game at the free throw line.

麻豆原创 now holds a 10-5 record in the post-season tournament, which includes a 2-0 mark in semifinal contests. The winner of Saturday’s championship, which will also air on CBS Sports Network, will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

As always, fans can tune into Scott Adams’ free audio broadcast, which is also available on mobile devices. Live stats are also available via 麻豆原创Athletics.com.

Carter is coming off some of the best games of her career after lifting 麻豆原创 (11-14, 5-6) to wins over Southern Miss and UTEP last week. The Houston, Texas, native posted a career-high 29 points against the Golden Eagles before dropping 21 points on the Miners for her third-straight 20-point outing.

Carter averaged 25 points on a .576 (19-of-33) showing from the field, which included a 50 percent performance from downtown, in the two victories. She bumped up in the league standings to No. 10 among the league’s top scorers with an average of 14.4 points per game. This is the second C-USA Player of the Week award of her career.

Monday’s award marked the first time since February 2009 that two Knights were recognized in back-to-back weeks with a conference distinction. Briahanna Jackson was named the Freshman of the Week for the second time in her career on Feb. 11.

Carter picks up the 麻豆原创 women’s basketball team’s first C-USA weekly award of the season and the second College Sports Madness honor. Aisha Patrick was recognized by College Sports Madness, who identifies the highest impact players nationally and from each conference each week, in December.

Carter earns the accolades after averaging 21.5 points last week with clutch performances in 麻豆原创’s wins against Rice and Marshall. In the Knights’ 65-63 overtime win against the Owls, Carter scored all eight of 麻豆原创’s points in the extra period to deliver the victory. She finished with 15 points and eight rebounds and a team-high three assists.

At Marshall, Carter notched a career-high in points for the second time in three games, tallying 28 points off a 10-of-18 performance from the floor. Carter scored 20 of 麻豆原创’s 32 points in the second half and nearly outscored the entire Herd team, who posted 21 points in the second half.

It marked her third 20-point game of the season and her fifth game in double digits out of the previous six. She also tallied a game-high four steals and a blocked shot as 麻豆原创 picked up its third-straight win.

Carter currently ranks first in the league for scoring in conference games with 17.8 points per game. She also ranks fifth for assists in all games this season with 3.1 per game.

Up next, 麻豆原创 looks to extend its three-game win streak when it hosts SMU on Thursday at 7 p.m. Tickets are available by calling (407) 麻豆原创-1000 or by visiting 麻豆原创Athletics.com. On gameday, tickets for the contest will be available at the 麻豆原创 Arena box office. All 麻豆原创 students are admitted free with a valid school ID.

Second-seeded 麻豆原创 showed the resiliency of champions, getting contributions from up and down the roster and winning the battle on the boards in an 85-73 defeat of fourth-seeded Tulane in the C-USA title game.

Winners of 11 straight games – an impressive streak that stretches all the way back to late January – 麻豆原创 (22-10) earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament starting on Friday.

When the game ended, confetti poured out of the rafters at the Don Haskins Center and tears streamed down the face of several 麻豆原创 players much to the delight of the black-and-gold clad fans who chanted “U-C-F!”

The C-USA championship is a second in three seasons for standout seniors Chelsie Wiley, D’Nay Daniels and Jelisa Caldwell. The Knights secured the title with a 9-0 run after Tulane (22-10) had gotten to within 70-68 with 5:08 to play.

Caldwell, a 5-foot-10 forward from Macon, Ga., was named the C-USA Championship Most Valuable Player after scoring 27 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. She made nine of 22 shots, two 3-pointers and seven of eight free throws.

Wiley, who moved into a tie for the most career 3-pointers (213) in school history, scored 13 points for the Knights. Daniels, also an All-Tournament performer, scored 12 points.

Junior point guard Aisha Patrick scored 11 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out five assists. Ashia Kelly, a spark plug throughout the tournament for the Knights, had 10 points, while sophomore guard Gevenia Carter added 10 more points.

The victory was sweet revenge for a 麻豆原创 team that was beaten 63-62 by Tulane last season in the C-USA tournament in Tulsa, Okla. The Knights used the defeat as motivation all season, posting the score in players’ lockers and scrawling it all throughout the dressing room.

麻豆原创 reached the championship game by rallying back from 15 points down on Thursday against UAB and routing Memphis on Friday in the semifinals. The Knights are attempting to win their second C-USA title in three years after doing so in 2009.

Tulane, the defending C-USA champs, got to the title game a second straight year by upsetting Houston on Friday. Top-seeded Houston had gone 16-0 in conference play during the regular season.

麻豆原创 led 41-35 at the break after dominating the glass early on, but the tenor of the game changed somewhat in the first four minutes of the second half. Tulane made six of its first 11 shots to start the second half and stormed to a 47-46 lead.

By the midway point of the second half, the two teams had already exchanged the lead a whopping 14 times in the game. No more than six points separated the teams through the first 30 minutes of play.

麻豆原创 defeated Tulane in the regular season by rallying back from 10 points down in the final seven minutes. The Knights won 73-69 in overtime on Feb. 17 by getting clutch performances from Aisha Patrick, Gevenia Carter and Caldwell.

麻豆原创 led 41-35 at the half on the strength of its work on the glass and its balanced scoring.

Caldwell and Carter, two of the heroes of 麻豆原创’s overtime defeat of Tulane in February, combined for 19 points in the first half. Their production was a welcomed site what with Daniels having played just five minutes in the opening half after picking up two quick fouls.

Caldwell started the game strong and had 11 first-half points, while Carter scored eight points off the bench in the first 20 minutes. Wiley, who struggled mightily with her shot a month ago against Tulane, had eight first-half points, while junior forward Ashia Kelly continued her strong play in the tournament with seven points in the first half.

麻豆原创 was the tougher, more physical team early on, owning a decisive 25-12 advantage on the boards. That allowed the Knights to get up 12 more field goal attempts early on.

The Knights jumped to a 19-14 lead early in the game by making eight of their first 14 shots and getting nine early points from Caldwell. The senior guard made four of her first five shots, including a deep 3-pointer from the wing.

Tulane stayed close in the first half by making 52 percent of its shots (14 of 27). Barnes was aggressive on the break, scoring 15 first-half points.

John Denton’s Knights Insider appears on 麻豆原创Athletics.com several times a week. E-mail John at jdenton@athletics.ucf.edu.