What is important for a team like the UCF women’s basketball team is to end the regular season with momentum, so they can try to carry it over to the C-USA tournament and power their way back to the NCAA tournament in consecutive years for the first time ever.

This is the kind of game the Knights and head coach Joi Williams-Felton were looking for, beating Southern Miss, 84-72.

Six Knights were in double figures scoring, including all five starters, led by Ashia Kelly with a career-high 16 points. Aisha Patrick had 13 points and 5 assists. Angelica Mealing had 11 points and 10 rebounds. Emma Cannon had 13 points and 8 rebounds off the bench.

UCF finished the season 6-3 in their last nine games, to get a 7-9 C-USA schedule and 10-15 overall.

The C-USA women’s basketball tournament starts Monday, March 8, in Tulsa. I’ll keep you informed when they perform the draw. Our 8th seed means we should play #9 Marshall in the first round. We beat Marshall at home back on February 4.