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.

Keough has been a member of the 麻豆原创 Athletic Director’s Honor Roll every semester since enrolling as a Knight after transferring from Florida State a year ago. In 2010-11, she was recognized by the C-USA on its Commissioner’s Honor Roll in addition to earning the C-USA Commissioner’s Academic Medal.

This year, she has been nominated by unanimous vote by 麻豆原创’s faculty for a university Founders’ Day Award, given annually to students who demonstrate exceptional ability in a particular area of study. Keough holds a 3.961 grade-point average in sociology and is the Knights’ third-leading scorer at 10.1 points per game.

The Land O’Lakes, Fla., native is ranked among the league leaders in field goal percentage during conference play, hitting .407, and ranks among the top-15 scorers. She worked her way into the starting lineup in 麻豆原创’s Thanksgiving Classic and has started every game since.

In addition to her outstanding work on the court and in the classroom, Keough has spent time volunteering at numerous charitable events, including the 2011 Walk to End Alzheimer’s, the Komen Central Florida Race for the Cure, Give Kids the World, Florida Citrus Sports Camp and Miracle Field.

Keough is the first Knight since in 2006-07 to receive the distinction. Keough is joined by Houston’s Roxana Button, Tulsa’s Tiffani Couisnard, UAB’s Amber Jones and UTEP’s Kelli Willingham on the team, and she holds the highest GPA of the quintet.

Those knock-down, dragged-out pick-up games were doozies between the much taller Kayli and the much faster Meghan. But in a strange sort of way, those competitive battles helped form the unbreakable bond between the two sisters who currently star for the 麻豆原创 women’s basketball team.

“I picked on her a lot, especially when we played basketball in the driveway,” remembered Kayli, now a 6-foot-2 power forward for the Knights. “I obviously had my growth spurt before she did, so I was a lot bigger. And then she got really fast, so I had to chase her around and she’d burn me off the dribble. Those were wars. We used to go back and forth, and somebody would get mad and say something or chuck the ball in the bush and run into the house. We’d get really mad at one another.

“But now my sister is my best friend,” Kayli continued. “We get along so well and I always know that she’s going to tell me the truth. It’s good to have that backbone here with me in college.”

The Keough sisters are getting the chance to bond once again and play together at 麻豆原创 due to a stroke of fate. Meghan, a true freshman guard, committed to 麻豆原创 first following a stellar high school career where she led Tampa Catholic to two state titles. Kayli, a redshirt junior, originally attended Florida State, but transferred to 麻豆原创 last year after her sister suggested that she look into 麻豆原创’s program.

Now, they are reunited and both are playing well for the Knights (3-4), who host Florida Gulf Coast on Thursday at 7 p.m. at 麻豆原创 Arena. Kayli moved into the starting lineup over the Thanksgiving holiday and has scored 23 and 13 points in the past two games, respectively, and is fourth on the team in scoring at 9.7 points per game. Meghan has struggled with her jump shot and the faster pace of the college game, but she is still averaging 6.9 points and 2.1 rebounds and has made five starts.

“It’s tough for all freshmen, but Meghan is making the transition,” 麻豆原创 head coach Joi Williams said. “One thing about her is that she is going to try to do things right. The pace of the game is different, but she’ll learn quickly because she’s very smart. You can tell her something one time and she understands it. And we have a lot of confidence in Kayli to knock down shots, but she has to be confident in herself. She’s shown in the last couple of games that she can do it. She sees that we need her to score. I feel confident about Kayli’s future, and she’s only going to get better and better as time goes by.”

The Keough sisters’ seamless transition to a 麻豆原创 program that has won two Conference USA titles in the past three years has come about because of the many hours they spent as children honing their basketball skills. When father Michael, a former college football player at Tennessee Tech, wasn’t out in the driveway putting the girls through drills, they were usually going at one another in those heated pick-up games. And the showdowns usually didn’t end until one sister stormed off the court in a huff.

“Kayli was in middle school and was already 5-11, and I was a tiny little thing. I’d go to the basket all of the time and I never learned, and it was block, block, block,” Meghan recalled. “Finally, I got to the age where I could figure it out and make some moves. But usually I’d throw the ball and run inside crying. Really, we’re the complete opposites, but I think that’s why we get along so well.”

Kayli is the shy, more reserved sister, while Meghan is the more self-confident, outgoing personality. They briefly shared a bedroom as kids and would argue over minor details about whether the door should be shut or opened at night. Now that they are roommates once again in college, they can’t possibly imagine going this time in their lives without each other.

“She’s more soft-spoken and I’ll just kind of say it how it is. But we’re good for one another in that way. She calms me down and I get her going,” Meghan said. “Going into college is such a big transition and it can be so hard on freshmen transitioning to school and being on a new team. But having Kayli here, it makes it so easy for me. It’s almost like I’m back at home again. There’s somebody that I can talk to about anything. You have bad freshman days sometimes, but I have someone there for me. She gets on to me and tells me when I really struggled in practice. So we get in the gym together late at night and shoot.”

The only people more excited about Kayli and Meghan getting the opportunity to play together are their parents, Michael and Lisa Keough, and 13-year-old brother Michael. Lisa hasn’t missed a 麻豆原创 game all season, and the only high school game of Meghan’s that Michael missed was the state title game when his car was hit near the driveway of their family home.

These days, 麻豆原创 games have turned into somewhat of a Keough family reunion with parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts running through the crowd. And admittedly, it will dawn on the sisters from time to time how lucky they are to be playing basketball with one another yet again. Only now, they are teammates and there’s no bad blood over who fouled whom and which one knocked the ball out of bounds.

“Growing up together, we developed the same type of game. I can tell when I’m feeding the post that I know what Kayli likes and where she wants the ball. That just helps us and it will eventually help the team, as well,” Meghan said. “My parents couldn’t be happier. My grandparents, uncles and aunts can all come over to games now. When we were growing up one parent would always have to split and go with one girl, and the other parent would go with the other one because we were always on different AAU teams. But now they will not miss a single game.”

Added Kayli: “There are times when me and Meghan will get that inkling or catch each other’s eye out on the court and just know what the other one is going to do. When Meghan does something good, I’m just so proud of her because that’s my baby sister. I’m always excited for her. She’s rooting for me and I’m rooting for her.”