Daniels led the Knights with 10 rebounds, and along with junior Ashia Kelly finished with a team-high 16 points. Kelly also grabbed six rebounds and tied a career-high with four 3-pointers in the loss.

The Conference USA champions played in front of a crowd of 5,658 at St. John Arena. It was the second trip to the tournament in four years for the five seniors.

The Knights trailed 43-33 at the break but got within six points early in the second half. They would get no closer. UCF turned the ball over 18 times for 28 points the other way and had six shots blocked by the Buckeyes, who shot 52.5 percent from the field. The Knights shot just 39.7 percent but outrebounded Ohio State by a 39-33 margin.

UCF (22-11) entered the game seeded No. 13 and on an 11-game winning streak. Ohio State (23-9) came in as a No. 4 seed. The 22 wins for the Knights are the most in a season for the program since 1983-84 and fourth-best total in program history. They dropped to 0-4 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.

Wiley scored 11 points or UCF, including a 3-pointer from the wing to pull the Knights to within nine points with 12:47 remaining. That bucket made her the program’s all-time leader from beyond the arc. She passed Francine Houston (2004-07) on the career 3-point list with 214 makes from long-range.

Caldwell finished with eight points and six rebounds while sophomore Gevenia Carter added seven points and a game-high five steals. Junior Aisha Patrick scored eight points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out six assists.

The Buckeyes got a big game from Jantel Lavender, who finished with 30 points on 13-of-22 shooting and 11 rebounds.

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The Knights (22-10) drew a No. 13 seed and will play in the Dayton Regional against No. 4 Ohio State (22-9) in Columbus on Saturday, March 19 at St. John Arena.

The matchup will take place following the 11:20 a.m. game between No. 5 Georgia Tech (23-10) and No. 12 Bowling Green (28-4). The game will be televised on ESPN2.

UCF enters the tournament riding an 11-game winning streak, as the Knights have not lost since Jan. 30. They entered the C-USA Championship as the No. 2 seed with a 12-4 mark in league play before going on to defeat Tulane 85-73 in the title game over the weekend.

Jelisa Caldwell led six UCF players in double figures with a game-high 27 points against the Green Wave. She connected on 9-of-22 shots from the field and drained 7-of-8 free throws while also grabbing 12 rebounds to claim MVP honors.

UCF outrebounded Tulane 45-32 and forced 21 turnovers in the win. D’Nay Daniels and Chelsie Wiley earned spots on the all-tournament team.

The Knights also played in the NCAA Tournament in 1996 and 1999.

Ohio State enters the postseason riding a nine-game win streak after claiming its third-straight Big Ten Tournament title with an 84-70 win over Penn State. OSU is led by four-time Big Ten Player of the Year, Jantel Lavender.

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The Knights led by as many as 16 points before falling behind in the final minutes.

– From UCF Athletics:

Tied at 65-65 with 4.6 seconds to play, Carter received the inbounds pass in the back court. Beating the press, the sophomore slipped past a defender at her own free-throw line and, with the help of a screen from junior Ashia Kelly, was able to get off the game-winning shot from just inside half court.

“Yeah, I thought it was good,” Carter said. “Our motto on this team is trust, and we believe in what our coach says and does. She (head coach Joi Williams) drew it up. Our second option was for me to just try and get a good shot and that’s what I did and I hit it.”

After tying the game at 65-all on a free throw with 22 seconds remaining, UCF stopped the Miners at the defensive end by forcing UTEP’s Kelli Willingham into a bad shot. Kelly grabbed the rebound before Williams called timeout to set up the final play.

Losers of four of its past five games before winning at Tulsa, the Knights improve to 13-10 overall and 6-4 in Conference USA.

UCF got a season-high 26 points from senior Chelsie Wiley, 13 points from senior D’Nay Daniels and 11 points, eight rebounds from junior Aisha Patrick. Carter finished the night with nine points.

The Knights are back on the road on Sunday to take on Marshall at 2 p.m.

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The Knights are currently 11-10 overall and 4-4 in Conference USA after dropping two in a row and four of its last five games. Five teams sit at 4-4 in the conference behind Houston (8-0), Tulane (6-3), Memphis (5-3) and Rice (5-3).

UCF has been led this season by D’Nay Daniels (14.7 points, 7.9 rebounds), Aisha Patrick (10.4 points, 8 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 2.7 steals) and Chelsie Wiley (13.8 points).

Daniels is ranked fourth in C-USA in field goal percentage (.528), seventh in scoring average and ninth in rebounds. Patrick ranks fourth in steals and eight in both assists and rebounds, while Wiley ranks ninth in scoring in the conference.

UCF women’s basketball report — 2-2-2011 from Carlos Pineda on Vimeo.

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The Knights are off to an 8-6 start overall after opening the Conference USA portion of the schedule with an 81-68 win against Rice (8-7, 0-1 in C-USA). UCF trailed 45-44 with less than 14 minutes to play but got the win by forcing the Owls into 20 turnovers and hitting 24-of-37 shots from the foul line.

D’Nay Daniels and Aisha Patrick turned in identical nights on the score sheet as they both led the team with 21 points and eight rebounds. Chelsie Wiley finished with 16 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals while Jelisa Caldwell had nine points, five rebounds and five steals on the night.

UCF returns to the court on Sunday at 2 p.m. against Southern Miss at UCF Arena. Another home game follows against UAB on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Wiley leads the team in scoring with 14.9 points per game. Daniels is averaging 14.1 points on the season and is tops on the team in field goal percentage (.514) on 73-of-142 attempts. Patrick leads the team in rebounds with 8 per game, assists at 4 per game, and steals at 2.3 per game.

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– Gold for Williams –

Serving as an assistant coach in her first appearance working with USA Basketball, Williams helped lead the USA Women’s U-18 National Team to a 5-0 record at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

On Sunday, the U.S. team scored a huge 81-38 win over Brazil in the gold-medal game of the FIBA America U-18 Championship. Six players scored at least nine points in the game en route to the title.

Williams, the 2009 Conference USA Coach of the Year, coached alongside Florida State’s Sue Semrau and head coach Jennifer Rizzoti out of Hartford. Williams enters her fourth season with the Knights later this year when UCF opens the 2010-11 season at the Women’s National Invitational Tournament for the first time in program history.

– Sixth for James –

After recently wrapping up her track and field career as a UCF Knight this past season, James posted a time of 13.25 seconds on Saturday in the 100-meter hurdles finals of the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa.

That effort was good for sixth place behind professionals Lolo Jones (12.69), Kellie Wells (12.84), Damu Cherry (12.86) Ginnie Powell (12.90) and Tiffany Ofili (13.04) despite running into a stiff wind of 2.1 meters per second. James, who holds the UCF school record in the event, qualified sixth for the finals in 13.24 seconds.

Former college teammate Jackie Coward competed against James in the same semifinal heat and missed qualifying for the finals with a time of 13.50. Two weeks ago Coward finished her sophomore season as an outdoor All-American at the NCAA Track & Field Championships.

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Despite the ups and downs for the two programs over the course of 2009-10, there seems to be enough in place for a strong turnaround next season.

– Men’s Hoops –

On Thursday, the men’s team fell 76-54 to No. 21 UTEP as the Knights played most of the way without Marcus Jordan and P.J. Gaynor as Jordan rolled an ankle and Gaynor took a knee to the ribs.

Marcus Jordan (left) and Keith Clanton (Photo by Chris Schubert)

But by the time those injuries took place, though, the Miners already had complete control of the game as they eventually took a 28-point lead into the halftime break.

The Knights finished the season with a 15-17 overall mark and showed signs of good days to come with one of the youngest squads in the nation.

Jordan and Keith Clanton ended the year having been named to the Conference USA All-Freshman Team. Clanton blocked 45 shots and averaged 9.7 points on 48-percent shooting from the field along with 6.8 rebounds per game. Jordan averaged eight points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists and tallied 37 steals on the year.

Sophomore A.J. Rompza, who was named to the C-USA Freshman Team a year ago, finished the season with the fourth most steals in a single season at UCF with 81, and now ranks 10th all-time in that category with 127 swipes. Rompza’s 144 assists are the sixth most in a season for the program. He also averaged 8.6 points per game.

Sophomore Isaac Sosa now ranks No. 10 in school history with 130 career 3-pointers made. Sosa and A.J. Tyler led the knights in scoring this season with 10.3 points per game. Tyler also grabbed five rebounds per game.

UCF opened the C-USA tourney at Tulsa as the No. 9 seed and outshot No. 8 SMU, 69-53, in the opening round.

– Women’s Hoops –

On Tuesday, the eighth-seeded Lady Knights rallied from an 11-point deficit but couldn’t hold on to a three-point lead with a minute to go as they were turned away by top-seeded Tulane, 63-62.

Emma Cannon (left) and Chelsie Wiley (Photo by J.C. Carnahan)

The loss ended UCF’s season with an 11-16 overall record, just one year removed from winning the conference title and playing in the NCAA Tournament.

Juniors Chelsie Wiley and Emma Cannon surpassed career milestones this season as they both eclipsed the 1,000-point mark. Cannon surpassed the mark in a loss against Notre Dame and has now compiled 1,154 points (5th all-time) and 903 rebounds (2nd all-time) in her career. Wiley became the program’s 13th 1,000-point scorer in February and now ranks No. 8 all-time on that list with 1,069 points.

Wiley (11.5 points per game), Marshay White (11.3) and Cannon (11) led the team in scoring this season. Cannon, a C-USA All-Conference Third Team selection, also averaged 10 rebounds per game and finished with 18 blocked shots.

Aisha Patrick grabbed 63 steals and averaged 6.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists on the year. D’Nay Daniels averaged 9.8 points and 6.1 rebounds, while Angelica Mealing averaged 3.7 assists per game.

The Knights opened tournament play by defeating ninth-seeded Marshall in overtime, 59-57.

On Tuesday at UCF Arena the defending C-USA champs return to the court to take on No. 3 Notre Dame (10-0) at 12 p.m.

UCF enters the game at 3-5 overall with the C-USA part of the schedule getting underway on Jan. 8 at Marshall.

Emma Cannon (Photo by J.C. Carnahan)

The Knights have won big against Bethune Cookman, Jacksonville and Jackson State this season while suffering losses to No. 24 Middle Tennessee State, Washington, Florida Atlantic, Alabama and No. 10 Florida State.

Cannon, the C-USA Preseason Player of the Year, earned her first weekly conference award this season after going for double-doubles in three straight games against Alabama (23 points, 13 rebounds), Florida State (16 points, 15 rebounds), and Jackson State (13 points, 10 rebounds).

She won three weekly awards a season ago and has led the team in scoring in five different games rebounding in six different games this season. Cannon enters Tuesday’s game averaging 14.8 points and 10.6 rebounds per game this year with highs of 23 points and 18 rebounds.

Carter, who has continued to earn playing time as the season progresses, averaged 8.3 points over the past three contests in just 15 minute of action per outing.

After the league schedule gets underway against Marshall (6-4) the Knights will again be on the road at East Carolina (10-1) on Jan. 10. UCF will then return to Orlando for a three-game swing against Memphis (5-6), UAB (5-6) and Southern Miss (4-7) beginning Jan. 15.

- More UCF women’s basketball –

– Video of team returning from C-USA Tournament last season at WFTV

– To nominate athletic performances for inclusion each Wednesday to the Top-5 list of Orlando Sports Central Standouts, send over an email to JC@OrlandoSportsCentral.com –

1.) Zack Greinke – Kansas City Royals – The 2002 Apopka High School grad and first round draft pick that year by the Kansas City Royals was named the American League Cy Young award winner last week. Although the Royals finished just 65-97, Greinke went 16-8 with 242 strikeouts and a Major League Baseball-best 2.16 ERA to snag 25 of 28 first-place votes.

2.) Kevin Elliot and Alvis Graham – Florida A&M Rattlers – The former Colonial High School teammates made major contributions on Saturday for FAMU at the 30^th Annual Florida Classic to help lead the Rattlers to a 42-6 win over Bethune-Cookman. Elliot entered the game leading the team in receiving with 42 catches for 545 yards and 6 touchdowns. He scored a touchdown and recovered a fumble on Saturday while Graham led FAMU with six tackles. Graham entered the game with a team-high 62 tackles, 5.5 for a loss and one sack.

3.) Patrick Mputu – Winter Park Wildcats – Not only did the standout running back at Winter Park score the game-winning touchdown with 39 seconds remaining in the 50-47 opening round playoff win over Lake Brantley, but Mputu scored three times in the final quarter of the game. He finished the night with 199 yards in 26 carries, good for 7.7 yards per carry, after ending the regular season third in the area with 1,302 yards on the year.

Marshay White

4.) Marshay White – UCF Knights – The junior guard for the UCF women’s basketball team scored a career-high 23 points in the 80-46 win over Bethune-Cookman in the 2009-10 home opener for the Knights. The win kept alive a nine-game home win streak for the team at UCF Arena. White made four three-pointers and shot 9-of-17 while grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out six assists in the win.

5.) Erin Campbell – UCF Knights – Despite starring for a volleyball squad that went just 12-18 overall and 3-13 in Conference USA, Campbell ended her career at UCF with an all-C-USA Second Team selection. The nod is just the second postseason honor for the program as Stephanie Serna also received the distinction a year ago. Campbell entered the season finale against USF (which UCF won in five sets) with 383 kills and ranked in the all-time top-10 lists for six different statistical career categories.

More ––

Orlando Sports Central Standouts – 11/18/09

Orlando Sports Central Standouts – 11/11/09

Orlando Sports Central Standouts – 11/4/09

Orlando Sports Central Standouts – 10/28/09

Orlando Sports Central Standouts – 10/21/09

Orlando Sports Central Standouts – 10/14/09