March 2, 2008

Memphis clinched the 2008 Conference USA regular season title and the No. 1 seed in the C-USA Championship with a 76-67 road win at Southern Miss Saturday. Freshman Derrick Rose led the Tigers with 23 points, while Southern Miss sophomore Jeremy Wise - the 2007 C-USA Freshman of the Year - scored a game-high 26 points. UAB clinched a first-round bye in the C-USA Championship with a 69-44 victory against Tulane. The Blazers have now won six of their last seven contests and were led by 30 points from senior Robert Vaden.

UCF junior Jermaine Taylor broke the Knights' single-season scoring record with 20 points in a 68-60 win over Rice in the final regular season game played at the new UCF Arena. Tulsa sot a blistering 62.5 percent from the field as the Golden Hurricane defeated visiting Marshall, 89-64. SMU's three seniors combined for 59 points as the Mustangs knocked off UTEP, 99-96, in double overtime. East Carolina junior Sam Hinnant put up his second 30-point performance of the season to lead the Pirates to an 84-83 win against Houston.

No. 2 MEMPHIS 76, SOUTHERN MISS 67
HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) - Freshman Derrick Rose scored 23 points, including 11 in a five-minute span of the second half, to help No. 2 Memphis pull away to a 76-67 victory over Southern Miss on Saturday.

The Tigers (28-1, 14-0) clinched their third consecutive Conference USA regular-season title with their 37th-straight league win. The Tigers have been ranked either No. 1 or 2 for a school-record 13 straight weeks.

Chris Douglas-Roberts scored 22 points for Memphis, which struggled against Southern Miss (15-13, 7-7) almost from the beginning and led 34-31 at halftime after a quick spurt to take the lead in a back-and-forth game.

The Golden Eagles started the second half on a 12-4 run that gave them their biggest lead of the game. The highlight of the run came when R.L. Horton hit a 3-pointer, then was fouled by Willie Kemp on the right wing. Horton made the free throw to put Southern Miss ahead 43-37 with 15:04 left.

After scoring one point in the first half, Rose hit three 3-pointers, converted a three-point play and made six of seven free throws to clinch the win. His 3 with 5 minutes left made it 64-56 and Southern Miss would get no closer than three points the rest of the way.

Jeremy Wise led Southern Miss with 26 points, mostly on slashing drives to the basket. Craig Craft added 14 points for the Eagles and Sai'Quon Stone had 11.

UAB 69, TULANE 44
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - Junior Robert Vaden scored 30 points to continue his hot shooting and lead UAB to a 69-44 victory over Tulane on Saturday.

Vaden was coming off a 41-point effort at UTEP, which tied the school's single game scoring record. He now is averaging 31.8 points over his last three games.

The Blazers captured their fourth straight victory, and the sixth win over UAB's last seven contests. The lone loss over the stretch was a one-point, last second defeat to then-No. 1 Memphis, 79-78, on Feb. 16.

UAB (21-8, 11-3 Conference USA) jumped to a 41-18 halftime lead and cruised during the second half. The win left UAB alone in second place in Conference USA, behind 14-0 Memphis.

Tulane (15-3, 5-9) got 12 points each from David Gomez and Robinson Louisme. The Green Wave shot 32.1 percent from the field in losing its seventh straight game.

UAB jumped to an 11-4 lead and then went on a 13-0 run to make it 24-4.

Vaden was fouled three times while shooting 3-pointers during that stretch and made all nine free throws.

The Blazers' biggest margin was 28 points at 54-26 with 14:22 left in the game.

Vaden was UAB's only player to score in the double digits. Jeremy Mayfield had eight points and 10 rebounds and Aaron Johnson dished out seven assists without a turnover.

UCF 68, RICE 60
ORLANDO, Fla. - Junior guard Jermaine Taylor totaled 20 points and senior guard Dave Noel added 19 points to lift the UCF men's basketball team to a 68-60 win over Rice at the new UCF Arena on Saturday. The contest, which was played in front of 5,606 fans, served as the Knights' (16-12, 9-5 Conference USA) final home contest of the season.

During the contest, Taylor became the school's leading single-season scorer since joining the Division I level. He has registered 593 points in 28 games in 2007-08.

UCF led for most of the game, but the Owls (3-24, 0-14) got within two points with 2:29 remaining in the contest after Patrick Britton hit a pair of free throws. Noel than nailed two foul shots and after a Rice turnover, Taylor drained a 3-pointer to push the Knights' edge to 63-56 and seal the win for the hosts.

"It was not a seamless game obviously... give a lot of credit to Rice. That is the way that they play. You just cannot put them away," said UCF head coach Kirk Speraw. "Our guys came up with stops at the end of the game that they needed to come up with and executed a couple of possessions there down the stretch."

The Knights led by 19 points two minutes into the second half and seemed in control until the 12-minute mark of the final stanza when the Owls began their comeback. Lawrence Ghoram hit a triple at the 12:05 mark, starting an 18-5 run that got Rice back into the game.

Ghoram recorded seven points during the spurt. Suleiman Braimoh capped the run for Rice with a layup with 2:57 left on the clock that cut UCF's advantage to 57-54.

Rice had the opportunity to get within a point after Noel made both of his free throws at the 2:27 mark, but Bryan Beasley threw the ball out of bounds looking for a cutting teammate.

The contest served as the final game in Orlando for UCF's five seniors.

The Knights led 39-23 at halftime after shooting 56.0 percent from the floor before intermission. Midway through the first half, senior guard Mike O'Donnell sparked a 21-3 UCF run with a trey. UCF's defense limited the Owls to just three points during a seven-minute span.

UCF finished the game with a 38-26 edge on the glass. For the contest, the hosts shot 45.7 percent overall and 43.8 percent from deep.

The Knights shot 19-of-23 (82.6 percent) from the free-throw line.

Ghoram led all players with 23 points and Rodney Foster added 15 in the losing effort.

TULSA 89, MARSHALL 64
TULSA, Okla. - Hot-shooting Tulsa handed Marshall its worst loss of the season by virtue of an 89-64 decision in Conference USA men's basketball action at the Donald W. Reynolds Center on Saturday.

The Golden Hurricane (16-11, 7-7 C-USA) shot 62.5 percent from the field (30-for-48) and 57.9 percent from 3-point range (11-for-19) en route to recording the most points against the Thundering Herd (15-12, 7-7) this season.

Forward Ray Reese scored a career-high 24 points on 9-of-12 shooting for Tulsa with five rebounds. Guards Ben Uzoh and Brett McDade added 14 and 11 points, respectively, for TU to avenge an overtime loss to Marshall in January and tie the Herd in the league standings.

Tulsa shot a sizzling 65.4 percent in the first half to jump out to a 48-30 halftime lead. The Golden Hurricane's first-half point total marks the second time that the Herd allowed a season-worst 48 points in a half, tying Louisville's second-half total versus MU on Dec. 18.

Reese netted 15 first-half points on 6-of-7 shooting, including 3-for-4 from beyond the arc. As a team, Tulsa went 7-for-10 from 3-point range in the first half and out-rebounded MU 18-11.

Marshall's Tyler Wilkerson recorded a foul just 12 seconds into the contest, which relegated him to the bench for the next eight-plus minutes. With the Herd's hottest player on the bench, Tulsa jumped out to a quick 9-2 lead.

After a media timeout, MU head coach Donnie Jones altered his defense into a zone, which seemed to slow the Golden Hurricane attack momentarily. Tulsa's Bishop Wheatley missed a wide open layup with 13 minutes remaining and the Herd transition offense went to work. Baines scored while being fouled for the traditional three-point play and added another basket 30 seconds later, followed by a Humphrey jumper, to trim the TU lead to 16-14.

Wilkerson re-entered the game with MU down just two points, but Tulsa answered the Herd's charge with a 13-0 run, fueled by a pair of Reese 3-pointers. Pierre-Marie Altidor Cespedes and Taurean Marshall hit back-to-back treys to slow the Hurricane surge, but the TU offense proved to be too much early on.

The Herd found itself down 20 points, 50-30, on Jerome Jordan's field goal in the opening minute of the second half. Marshall, however, did not fold and responded with a 12-0 run to claw to within eight points, 50-42, with 14 minutes remaining.

T. Marshall, who returned to the Herd on Feb. 6 after tearing his ACL, re-injured his knee toward the end of MU's surge to get within single digits. The MU senior sank a pair of 3-pointers, including the second MU field goal of the run, in 11 total minutes of play. The senior is likely out for the season.

After a Wilkerson dunk off a nice feed from Mark Dorris put MU down 10 points, 63-53 with 8:49 left, the Hurricane ripped off a 9-0 run to go ahead by 19 points. Tulsa did not allow the Herd to get closer than 16 points the rest of the game, going on to win its seventh game in its last nine outings.

Humphrey scored a team-high 16 points with six rebounds. Freshman Tirrell Baines scored 15 points and Wilkerson scored eight points with six rebounds. Dorris netted 13 points in 40 minutes.

Jordan recorded seven blocks on the night to move into first place on the Tulsa single-season blocks list.

SMU 99, UTEP 96 (2OT)
DALLAS (AP) - Senior Jon Killen scored a career-high 33 points and hit a key 3-pointer, his seventh of the game, late in the second overtime to lead SMU past UTEP 99-96 on Saturday night.

Junior Bamba Fall added a career-high 19 points for the Mustangs, including two go-ahead foul shots with 48 seconds left in the second overtime. UTEP's Stefon Jackson missed a 3-pointer with four seconds left that would have tied the game. Fall was 9-of-10 at the free throw line for the game and had six rebounds.

Marvin Kilgore scored 28 points and Jackson had 27 to lead UTEP (16-11, 7-7 Conference USA). This was the most points by SMU in a conference game since a 104-87 home-win over UTEP on Jan. 20, 2000.

Killen, who was 7-of-11 from 3-point range, sank his final one with 2:16 left to give SMU (9-18, 3-11) a two-point lead. Killen also has nine assists.

Senior Derrick Roberts added 17 points for the Mustangs. He also was charged with defending Jackson, who was held scoreless in the overtimes.

Freshman Papa Dia added 10 points and had a team-high eight rebounds. Paulius Ritter also had a career-high nine points for SMU. Dia and Ritter both fouled out late in regulation.

EAST CAROLINA 84, HOUSTON 83
GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) - Cory Farmer hit his only two free throw attempts with 22 seconds left to rally East Carolina to an 84-83 victory over Houston Saturday.

The Pirates (10-17, 4-10 Conference USA) squandered a 12-point lead in the second half, and Lanny Smith's free throw with 4:21 helped the Cougars (21-7, 10-4) tie the score at 75. Dion Dowell broke the tie with a 3-pointer with 3:08 to go.

The Cougars' lead was 80-76 after Dowell hit the front end of a two-shot foul with 2:19 left. But East Carolina rallied to regain the lead on back-to-back 3-pointers by James Legan, the last of which came at 1:45. Smith hit the front end of another two-shot foul to cut the Pirates' lead to 82-81 with 1:20 left.

Senior Robert McKiver, who was 11-for-14 from the free throw line, hit two of his foul shots with 44 seconds to go to put Houston on top again. McKiver, coming off a 52-point performance in his last outing, led the Cougars with 29 points.

Kelvin Lewis fouled Farmer with 22 seconds to go to set up his game-winning free throws. Houston worked for the last shot, but McKiver missed a jumper with 3 seconds left.

Junior Sam Hinnant led the Pirates with 30 points, including 8-for-16 from 3-point range. Farmer finished with 13, and Legan and sophomore John Fields had 10 apiece for East Carolina. Fields also grabbed 10 rebounds.

Lewis added 19 points for the Cougars and Dowell scored 17.