University of Memphis Athletics
University of Memphis
11-9, 5-4
Cincinnati
5-15, 2-7
@MemphisWBKB Picks Up Third Road Win of Year
Jan 28, 2015 | Women's Basketball
CINCINNATI - The University of Memphis women's basketball team (11-9, 5-4 American) swept the regular season series with Cincinnati (5-15, 2-6 American) in a 56-44 victory, Wednesday. The road win is the third of the season and the second in conference play for the Tigers.
"This is a really good road win for us," Head Coach Melissa McFerrin said. "I didn't think we played that well in the first half. Our defensive rotations were a step late, but in the second half, I really was pleased. We had a nice little burst of transition that stretched our lead to 19. Ariel Hearn was great tonight in pushing the ball up the floor and Mooriah Rowser was probably our player of the game. It's nice to see her play well and finish with 16 points."
The Tigers led at the half, 25-22, after leading for a majority of the opening stanza. Brianna Wright scored a pair of buckets to get things going for the Tigers, then Rowser took over the half, scoring 14 of her 16 points in the opening 20 minutes.
Memphis came out of the locker room and picked up the pace. A Taylor Williams jumper started a 7-0 Memphis run where the team hit six of its first seven shots of the half, pushing the lead to 39-26 at the under 16 media timeout.
The Tigers got out in transition to stretch the lead to 19, the biggest lead of the night, but the home team was not done. With the Bearcats down 14, Cincinnati drained a three to cut the deficit to 11, then followed a Tiger turnover with a jumper to pull to just nine down with 5:14 to go.
But following a Cincinnati triple, Hearn answered on the other end for Memphis and kept the Tigers' lead in double digits at 52-42. The Tigers closed out the win with a pair of layups late for the 56-44 final score.
"You're starting to see a sense of urgency from our team now. You're seeing that in Ariel Hearn and Asia Fuqua-Bey and I think we saw it a bit tonight from Mooriah Rowser," McFerrin said.
Rowser was the game's leading scorer, finishing with 16 points, while Fuqua-Bey added 15 points and nine rebounds. Hearn finished with nine points and six rebounds, adding three assists. With her nine points, Hearn passes Victoria Crawford's career scoring mark and in to 17th place in the Memphis record book with 1,303 career points.
Marley Hill led Cincinnati with a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Memphis returns home, Saturday, to host second-place USF in a 2 p.m. contest. That game will air on ESPN3.com and will be Memphis' Play4Kay Pink game. All fans wearing pink receive free admission to the game.
