Women’s Basketball Upsets UCF, Headed to AAC Final

The Cincinnati Bearcats women’s basketball program has had quite a weekend at the Mohegan Sun Arena.

On Saturday evening, the third seeded Bearcats drubbed eleventh seeded Memphis in the quarterfinals of the AAC Tournament. Cincinnati absolutely obliterated Memphis 94-52, posting their second largest margin of victory all season.

Cincinnati bullied their way to a 20-12 lead after one quarter before throwing the knockout blow in a 31-7 run of a second quarter. Ahead 51-19, Cincinnati cruised in the second half, enabling 13 players to score for the Bearcats in the contest. Iimar’I Thomas led the way for Cincinnati with 17 points.

The Bearcats built on their Saturday evening win with an even more impressive one on Sunday night. Cincinnati came from behind to knock off UCF to earn their first ever bid in the AAC Championship Game.

Cincinnati overcame a 36-25 halftime deficit by playing shutdown defense through the second half, holding the Knights to 5 for 26 shooting in the second half. IImar’I Thomas again led the way for Cincinnati, dominating the interior with 21 points and eight rebounds.

On Monday evening, Cincinnati gets its shot at perennial AAC titan UConn in the AAC Championship Game at 7 PM on ESPN2. As noted many times previously - Cincinnati is 0-22 vs UConn since 2005 in the Big East and AAC and have lost by an average of 40 points per game. This will be their final meeting as conference foes, and perhaps final meeting for a long time.

The Bearcats are not considered on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament as poor metrics and a couple of bad out-of-conference losses are holding them back. The only way to make their first NCAA Tournament since 2003 is to beat UConn.

Check back with Down the Drive for full coverage of the contest.