Freshman guard Shala Hodges scored a career-high 17 points and led five players in double figures as fifth-seeded East Carolina routed 12th seed Southern Mississippi in the first round of the Conference USA women's basketball tournament Monday at Tulsa, Okla.
ECU (21-9) will play No. 4 seed Memphis at 3:30 p.m. today in the quarterfinals.
The Pirates broke the tournament scoring record set by DePaul in a 100-75 win over Houston in 1997. ECU also had its most points and largest margin of victory in the tournament. The margin was ECU's largest ever over a league opponent.
In addition to Hodges' 17 points, Kim Gay and Chareya Smith added 13 points each, while Allison Spivey and Celeste Stewart had 10 apiece.
Pauline Love led Southern Miss (9-21) with 32 points and 11 rebounds.
Earlier Monday, Chelsie Wiley scored a team-high 19 points as eighth-seeded Central Florida defeated No. 9 seed Marshall 59-57 in overtime.
UCF (10-15) plays regular-season champ Tulane today.
Marshall (14-15) was led by Mystee Dale with 21 points and Tynikki Crook with 18 points and 12 rebounds.
In the third quarterfinal, Tamika Dukes scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead sixth-seeded UAB over No. 11 seed Tulsa 52-45.
The Blazers (14-14) will play third-seeded SMU today.
No. 7 seed Rice played UTEP in a late game Monday.
Also Monday
Atlantic 10
No. 5 Xavier 57, Temple 55 (OT): At Upper Marlboro, Md., Atlantic 10 player of the year and tournament MVP Amber Harris tied a season high with 23 points, and Ta'Shia Phillips had a season-high 21 rebounds as Xavier earned an NCAA tournament bid.
The 18-game win streak for the Musketeers (27-3) included a 14-0 run through the conference regular season and 3-0 in the tournament, joining 2004-05 Temple as the only A-10 teams to make it through both unbeaten.
Temple (24-8), which rallied from a 14-0 deficit, was led by Shaqwedia Wallace with 18 points and Kristen McCarthy with 17.
Big East
No. 9 West Virginia 56, Rutgers 49: Sarah Miles scored 18 points to lead West Virginia over Rutgers in the Big East semifinals at Hartford, Conn.
Asya Bussie added 10 points for the Mountaineers (28-4), setting up a matchup against top-ranked and undefeated Connecticut in tonight's final. The Huskies beat Notre Dame 59-44 in the first semifinal, recording a record 71st straight win.
Khadijah Rushdan led Rutgers (19-14) with 12 points, and Monique Oliver had 11. The loss snaps a four-game winning streak that likely put the Scarlet Knights into the NCAA tournament.
The Mountaineers used a 12-3 run in the second half to build a 12 point lead and held on from there.
Southern
Chattanooga 72, Samford 67: At Charlotte, Shanara Hollinquest scored 22 points, Michelle Davis added 16 and hit two key 3-pointers late, and Chattanooga rallied to beat Samford 72-67 to win its eighth Southern Conference title in 10 years.
The Mocs (24-8) were down by 11 points midway through the second half but turned on the defense while Davis got hot from the outside. Her 3-pointer with 3:03 left gave Chattanooga its first lead of the second half, and she buried another 3 with 1:24 left to make it 64-60.
Hollinquest hit four free throws in the final 14 seconds left to put it away.
Savannah Hill scored 26 points, but a six-minute second-half scoring drought doomed the Bulldogs (22-10).
West Coast
No. 18 Gonzaga 76, Pepperdine 48: Courtney Vandersloot scored 19 points, Heather Bowman added 14, and Gonzaga rolled to its 17th straight victory by beating Pepperdine to clinch an NCAA berth.
Kayla Standish had 10 points for the Zags (27-4), who thoroughly dominated the conference with a 14-0 regular-season run followed by tournament blowouts of Santa Clara and Pepperdine.
Lauren Bell scored 16 points for the Waves (20-11). Pepperdine got off to a 3-for-20 shooting start and never seriously threatened the Zags, who have won six straight regular-season conference titles.
The Associated Press
