Conference USA basketball recap - C-USA basketball

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Recap of Saturday, March 4th games

Memphis 69, Houston 62
Senior forward Rodney Carney scored 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds in his final home game Saturday night to lead No. 3 Memphis to a 69-62 over Houston and the Conference USA title. It was the first time that Memphis (27-3, 13-1 Conference USA) had won a conference title outright since the 1994-95 Great Midwest Conference crown.

Shawne Williams scored 13 points for Memphis, and, like Carney, had three blocks. Washington added 12, but was 3-for-12 from the field. Jahmar Thorpe led Houston (19-8, 9-5) with 25 points and nine rebounds, while Chris Lawson and Ramon Dyer scored 11 each. Dyer also had 10 rebounds. Oliver Lafayette, who leads the Cougars in scoring with 16.1 points a game, was limited to only two points, missing six of his seven shots from the field, including all four outside the arc before fouling out with 3:37 left.

Memphis will open the C-USA tourney versus the winner of Tulane/Marshall. Houston will open against the winner of UCF/ECU.

Southern Miss 74, East Carolina 56
Jason Forte had 17 points and Southern Mississippi snapped a five-game losing streak with a 74-56 victory over East Carolina on Saturday. Jarekus Singleton and Craig Craft added 12 points apiece for the Golden Eagles (9-20, 3-11 Conference USA), who clinched the 11th seed in the 12-team league tournament which begins Wednesday in Memphis, Tenn. Courtney Captain had 13 points for the Pirates (8-19, 2-12), who ended the regular season having lost three straight and seven of eight. East Carolina will be seeded 12th in the C-USA tournament. Courtney Beasley added 11 points and Mildon Ambres finished with 10 for Southern Miss, which outrebounded East Carolina 42-32 and scored 18 points off 19 turnovers by the Pirates. Corey Rouse had 11 points and 11 rebounds, and Sam Hinnant scored 10 points for East Carolina.

Southern Miss will open against Tulsa on Wed. and East Carolina will play UCF.

Rice 68, SMU 66
This was a game so close and great that they will go it again in game 1 of the C-USA Tournament. Morris Almond scored 40 points and had nine rebounds to lead Rice past SMU 68-66 on Saturday night. Harrison, who was the only Rice player in double figures, shot 14-of-19 from the floor and was 10-of-11 from the foul line. His last point was a key free throw that extended Rice's lead to four with 20 seconds left. Willingham had 14 and Bryan Hopkins had 12 to lead SMU.

Tulsa 63, Tulane 59
Anthony Price had 19 points and nine rebounds, and Tulsa held off a late Tulane rally for the win Saturday. Tulane trailed 53-31 with 8:27 left and its leading scorer, Quincy Davis, on the bench with five fouls. The Green Wave switched to a full-court press and went on a 27-6 run to pull within 59-58 with 1:22 remaining on a layup by Andrew Garcia.

Donnie Stith led Tulane with 12 points, while David Gomez added 11 and Ryan Williams scored 10. Tulane will open their C-USA tourney with Marshall and Tulsa will take on Southern Miss.

Central Florida 66, UTEP 55
Mike O'Donnell hit seven of his nine shots from the floor and scored a career-high 23 points as UCF upset UTEP on senior night in Orlando. Josh Peppers' three-pointer with 11:12 remaining capped a 15-2 UCF run and gave UCF their biggest lead, 53-38.
Jason Williams was the only UTEP player to score during the first 13:50 of the second half, allowing UCF to maintain its double-digit lead.

Justin Rose finished with 14 points, Peppers had 11 points and Marcus Johnson had 10 rebounds for UCF. Williams finished with 26 points and five rebounds. Brent Murphy had 10 points for UTEP, who shot just 37 percent from the floor. UCF will open against ECU on Wednesday while UTEP will await the winner of Tulsa/Southern Miss.

UAB 82, Marshall 61
Marvett McDonald scored 17 points as UAB stayed on their hot streak and bulldozed Marshall on Saturday. UAB got 10 points from Manurice Gibbs and 10 assists from Carldell "Squeaky" Johnson. Tre Whitted scored 15 points and Mark Patton added 13 for Marshall.

The Thundering Herd had won three of its previous four games. But McDonald hit two early 3-pointers and Johnson added a jumper to get UAB off to an 8-3 lead. The Blazers never trailed and led 42-25 at the half. UAB's biggest margin was 22 points at 74-52. The Blazers shot 50 percent from the field, and coach Mike Anderson cleared his bench with 12 players scoring.

UAB is the #2 seed in Memphis next week and will take on the winner of the Rice/SMU game. Marshall will get Tulane in the first round.

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

Conference USA Basketball

Recap of Saturday, March 4th games