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Recap of Wednesday, March 1st games

Marshall 73, Central Florida 61
Mark Patton scored 16 points and Marshall used a 13-3 run to put away Central Florida and sweep the season series on Wednesday night. Joe Miles added 15 points for Marshall. Chris Ross scored 13 and Markel Humphrey had 11. Josh Peppers led UCF with 18 points and Jermaine Taylor added 13.

Marshall made 53 percent (10-of-19) of its second-half shots and outscored UCF 29-6 from the free-throw line for the game. Marshall could now finish as high as fifth if they can upset UAB on Saturday. UCF will host UTEP in their regular season finale.

Houston 74, Rice 71
Lanny Smith hit a layup with 48 seconds left and Jahmar Thorpe followed with two free throws to help Houston defeat Rice 74-71 and earn a split of their season series on Wednesday. Morris Almond missed two 3-point attempts in the final six seconds for Rice and held Almond to a reasonably low 17 point total. Oliver Lafayette led Houston with 22 poitns and Smith added 17. J.R. Harrison led Rice with 22 points and Almond added 17. Patrick Britton came off the bench to score 12. With the win, Houston has clinched a first round bye in next week’s C-USA tournament and will be the #4 seed. Rice could find themselves anywhere from five to ten when the tourney kicks off in a week. Houston will finish up the season in Memphis on Saturday and Rice will host SMU.

Tulane 50, Southern Miss 47
Tulane held Southern Miss without a field goal for the final 8:22 to hold on for a 50-47 win and a split in the season series. Andrew Garcia sparked a Green comeback with four second-half steals, buried the go-ahead 3-pointer with 4:34 to go and added the game-clinching free throws with 15.9 seconds remaining.

Quincy Davis led Tulane with 20 points. Chris Moore added 11 and David Gomez had 10. Lamonte led Southern Miss with 19 points and Craig Craft had 11. Tulane will travel to Tulsa on Saturday while Southern Miss will finish up at home against East Carolina.

UTEP 49, Tulsa 45
Miguel Ayala came off the bench to score 14 points, including three free throws in the final 23 seconds, to help Texas-El Paso defeat Tulsa 49-45 on Wednesday night and earn a sweep of the season series. Tulsa had pulled to within one at 46-45 on a free throw by Anthony Price with 25 seconds left in the low-scoring game. Ayala hit 4-of-9 from the field, including 3-of-8 3-pointers. He hit 3-of-4 free throws. Jason Williams also had 14 points for the Miners. Price led the Hurricane with 13 points.

UTEP will finish up the season at UCF while Tulsa will host Tulane.

by John Griffin, CUSA-fans.com Basketball Staff Writer

Conference USA Basketball

Recap of Wednesday, March 1st games