Second-seeded UCF showed the resiliency of champions, getting contributions from up and down the roster and winning the battle on the boards in an 85-73 defeat of fourth-seeded Tulane in the C-USA title game.

Winners of 11 straight games – an impressive streak that stretches all the way back to late January – UCF (22-10) earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament starting on Friday.

When the game ended, confetti poured out of the rafters at the Don Haskins Center and tears streamed down the face of several UCF players much to the delight of the black-and-gold clad fans who chanted “U-C-F!”

The C-USA championship is a second in three seasons for standout seniors Chelsie Wiley, D’Nay Daniels and Jelisa Caldwell. The Knights secured the title with a 9-0 run after Tulane (22-10) had gotten to within 70-68 with 5:08 to play.

Caldwell, a 5-foot-10 forward from Macon, Ga., was named the C-USA Championship Most Valuable Player after scoring 27 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. She made nine of 22 shots, two 3-pointers and seven of eight free throws.

Wiley, who moved into a tie for the most career 3-pointers (213) in school history, scored 13 points for the Knights. Daniels, also an All-Tournament performer, scored 12 points.

Junior point guard Aisha Patrick scored 11 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out five assists. Ashia Kelly, a spark plug throughout the tournament for the Knights, had 10 points, while sophomore guard Gevenia Carter added 10 more points.

The victory was sweet revenge for a UCF team that was beaten 63-62 by Tulane last season in the C-USA tournament in Tulsa, Okla. The Knights used the defeat as motivation all season, posting the score in players’ lockers and scrawling it all throughout the dressing room.

UCF reached the championship game by rallying back from 15 points down on Thursday against UAB and routing Memphis on Friday in the semifinals. The Knights are attempting to win their second C-USA title in three years after doing so in 2009.

Tulane, the defending C-USA champs, got to the title game a second straight year by upsetting Houston on Friday. Top-seeded Houston had gone 16-0 in conference play during the regular season.

UCF led 41-35 at the break after dominating the glass early on, but the tenor of the game changed somewhat in the first four minutes of the second half. Tulane made six of its first 11 shots to start the second half and stormed to a 47-46 lead.

By the midway point of the second half, the two teams had already exchanged the lead a whopping 14 times in the game. No more than six points separated the teams through the first 30 minutes of play.

UCF defeated Tulane in the regular season by rallying back from 10 points down in the final seven minutes. The Knights won 73-69 in overtime on Feb. 17 by getting clutch performances from Aisha Patrick, Gevenia Carter and Caldwell.

UCF led 41-35 at the half on the strength of its work on the glass and its balanced scoring.

Caldwell and Carter, two of the heroes of UCF’s overtime defeat of Tulane in February, combined for 19 points in the first half. Their production was a welcomed site what with Daniels having played just five minutes in the opening half after picking up two quick fouls.

Caldwell started the game strong and had 11 first-half points, while Carter scored eight points off the bench in the first 20 minutes. Wiley, who struggled mightily with her shot a month ago against Tulane, had eight first-half points, while junior forward Ashia Kelly continued her strong play in the tournament with seven points in the first half.

UCF was the tougher, more physical team early on, owning a decisive 25-12 advantage on the boards. That allowed the Knights to get up 12 more field goal attempts early on.

The Knights jumped to a 19-14 lead early in the game by making eight of their first 14 shots and getting nine early points from Caldwell. The senior guard made four of her first five shots, including a deep 3-pointer from the wing.

Tulane stayed close in the first half by making 52 percent of its shots (14 of 27). Barnes was aggressive on the break, scoring 15 first-half points.

John Denton’s Knights Insider appears on UCFAthletics.com several times a week. E-mail John at jdenton@athletics.ucf.edu.

Second-seeded UCF, 21-10 and winners of 10 games in a row, will face the winner of the Houston-Tulane game on Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET. UCF beat Tulane 73-69 in overtime on Feb. 17, but lost to top-seeded Houston (16-0 in conference play this season) 71-68 on Jan. 27.

The Knights won the C-USA championship in 2009 and are hoping to repeat the feat for a second time in three seasons.

UCF hit 42.1 percent of its shots, a big improvement over the 32 percent it shot on Thursday. The Knights also set a season high with 11 made 3-pointers on 20 attempts.

Senior guard Chelsie Wiley, who struggled mightily with her shot on Thursday, scored 21 points. A day after missing 10 of 11 shots, she made six of 12 shots and four 3-pointers to spark UCF’s offense. She needs one more 3-pointer to tie the all-time school-record for threes in a career (213) set by Francine Houston from 2004-07.

Junior forward Ashia Kelly, who sparked Thursday’s stirring second-half rally with her energy and defense, hit three 3-pointers in the first half and scored 12 points. Kelly, who averaged just 4.4 points this season made a career-best four 3-pointers when the Memphis defense sagged off of her to defend against Wiley and D’Nay Daniels (16 points and 11 rebounds).

UCF led by as much as 22 points (38-16) early in the first half against a Memphis team built around defense and rebounding. UCF dominated the boards early on, holding a 24-14 edge on the glass. And for the game, UCF outrebounded the Tigers (21-11) 45-34.

The Knights are now 9-2 when scoring at least 70 points and 3-0 when hitting the 80-point mark. UCF is also 18-3 when leading at the half.

Memphis had been 13-1 this season when holding foes under 60 points, but UCF exceeded that mark by the 11-minute mark of the second half.

Clearly inspired by its first-day struggles in the Conference USA tournament, UCF came out inspired on Friday with arguably its best half of the season and led Memphis 45-29 at intermission.

The Knights, who needed a 15-point rally to defeat UAB on Thursday, shot 50 percent in the first half and made seven of 10 3-point shots to take a commanding lead.

The Knights’ only flaws in the first half were their nine missed free throws and 10 turnovers. Senior forward D’Nay Daniels (seven points) ended the half fittingly enough with a streaking layup to boost the Knights’ advantage back up to 16 points.

UCF came out locked in from the start of the game, shooting the ball early on as well as it has at any point this season. UCF made its first five shots and four 3-pointers to race to a 15-4 lead.

By the 8-minute mark of the first half, UCF shockingly led 28-12 – nearly the same score (27-12) that they trailed by at halftime on Thursday against UAB.

The Knights had 12 points in the first 2:51 of Friday’s game – as many as they had in Thursday’s forgettable first half.

John Denton’s Knights Insider appears on UCFAthletics.com several times a week. E-mail John at jdenton@athletics.ucf.edu.

The 15-point comeback was UCF’s biggest in a victory so far this season. Previously, the Knights biggest rally in a victory this season came on Feb. 17 against Tulane. They rallied back from 10 points back with 7:28 to play and won in overtime.

Also, the Knights won for the first time all season when trailing at the half. UCF had previously been 0-7.

The Knights will play the winner of the Rice-Memphis game on Friday at 11 a.m. ET.

The second-seeded Knights had a first-round bye for the first time in six years of playing in the C-USA tourney. UCF beat UAB twice during the regular season — 53-50 in Birmingham, Ala. on Feb. 24 and 65-55 at UCF on Jan. 13.

Wiley, UCF’s leading scorer during the regular season at 14.2 points per game, missed her first nine shots and all four of her 3-point attempts in Thursday’s game. But she never hesitated on the 3-pointer that put the Knights into the lead for the first time since 9-8 early in the first half.

Senior forward D’Nay Daniels scored 18 points, while junior guard Ashia Patrick chipped in 15 points. Daniels had 11 in the second half, while Patrick scored all 15 of her points after halftime.

UCF made 11 of 26 shots in the second half after a sloppy first half in which it made just five of 24 tries.

Unable to get much going at all offensively and showing signs of rust after being off the past seven days, UCF trailed UAB 27-12 at halftime.

UCF actually led 7-2 early in the game and seemed ready to build a big lead, but then its offense fell apart when shots wouldn’t fall. At one point in the first half, UCF missed 10 shots in a row and 14 of 15 during one stretch.

UCF led 9-8 midway through the first half on a steal and layup by Daniels. But from there, UCF struggled on both ends of the floor and a 15-1 burst by UAB put the Knights behind 23-10. Daniels’ bank shot with 2:41 to play in the half ended an offensive drought of 10 straight misses for UCF.

UCF made just five of 24 shots in the first half and missed all five of its 3-point attempts.

Wiley, UCF’s leading scorer on the season at 14.2 points per game, missed all seven of her shots in the first half. Daniels, who averaged 14 points during the regular season, had six first-half points on three of seven shooting.

John Denton’s Knights Insider appears on UCFAthletics.com several times a week. E-mail John at jdenton@athletics.ucf.edu.

Daniels, a senior from Atlanta, recently became the 14th player in UCF women’s basketball history to score 1,000 points, but it came on a night when she was knocked from the game and had blood pouring out of her mouth.

A front tooth that was broken in half when she face-planted into the floor is a not-so-subtle reminder of Daniels’ joining the 1,000-point club. Even now, watching the video of a Memphis player landing on her head as she dived for a loose ball is difficult.

“I was trying to be that hustle player for us and I dove for a ball and she landed on my head,” Daniels recalled following UCF’s rout of Marshall on Sunday. “I was freaking out. I knew something had happened, but I didn’t know how bad it was. When it happened, I was screaming and you can look at the tape of me kicking my legs up in the air. And one of my friends who plays for Memphis, she ran over to me to check on me. I never thought that something like that could happen to me, but hey, it did.”

Of course, it only slowed down Daniels, one of UCF’s toughest, most vocal players. Minutes after stopping the bleeding, the 5-foot-10 power forward was back on the floor to knock down a mid-range jump shot from the left corner for her 1,000th point.

Combining with senior guard Chelsie Wiley’s accomplishments, UCF (11-8 overall and 4-2 in Conference USA play) is one of only two schools in the conference with two active 1,000-point scorers. But Daniels said she is far more focused on UCF’s Thursday night showdown against Houston (15-4 and 6-0) than a personal gain.

“I got 1,000 points, but really I could care less,” Daniels said with a shrug. “But if we win a conference championship, that’s all that’s on my mind right now. I’m just about doing what my team needs me to do for us to be successful.”

UCF has been largely successful at home this season, compiling an 8-1 mark at UCF Arena. The Knights throttled Marshall 68-40 on Sunday in their finest all-around performance of the season. Up next is a key game against a Houston team that has the conference’s reigning Player of the Week (6-foot senior forward Courtney Taylor) and the league’s only unbeaten mark.

Daniels knows that Thursday night’s game is a chance for the Knights to announce themselves as favorites to win C-USA – much the way they did two seasons ago with a stirring postseason run in the tournament.

“It’s another opportunity to show the league what we’re all about,” Daniels said. “And let them know that UCF is back and that this season is going to be a very, very good one for us.”

It’s been a very good one for Daniels, who leads the Knights in scoring (14.7 ppg.) and is second in rebounding (7.7 rpg.). Despite being undersized in the post, Daniels has hustled her way to scoring in double digits in 16 games this season. She scored a career-best 25 points earlier in the season against FIU and she’s been a model of consistency in conference play, averaging 17.2 points and 8.6 rebounds with two double-doubles.

“D’Nay is a wonderful player and she is a good leader for us on and off the court. This is her last year and she wants to go out with a bang,” UCF guard Aisha Patrick said. “Whether it’s offense, defense or whatever, she drives us and we’re just playing off of her.”

Patrick and other teammates still kid Daniels about the crack in her front tooth and her hysterical reaction upon snapping her chomper in half. But Patrick says that it was emblematic of Daniels that not long after suffering the injury she was back in the game scrapping in the post and sprinting on the fastbreak.

“It wasn’t so pretty with the tooth,” Patrick said with a laugh. “It’s tough to get your tooth knocked out and then get into the mindset of getting back into the game. She did a wonderful job fighting through that adversity.”

Daniels and Wiley are two of the leaders of head coach Joi Williams’ first true senior class, and the finality of their basketball careers has helped to ramp up their intensity down the stretch of the season. Angelica Mealing, Jelisa Caldwell and Leah Paige are the other three seniors on a UCF team that hopes to win its second C-USA title in three seasons.

“D’Nay has grown a lot and I think there’s a sense of urgency there with her now. I think these seniors know now that they have 10 regular-season games left and D’Nay wants to leave as a champion,” said Williams, who is in her fourth season as UCF’s head coach. “She’s doing everything that she can to help us and hopefully we’ll get others to help her.”

Daniels will leave the program this spring with her name forever etched into the record books, but her only goal, she stressed, was to win another title. She won a state title in high school in Georgia and played in all 34 games the year UCF won the C-USA crown and advanced to the NCAA tournament. Championship hardware, and not points scored, will define her legacy at UCF, she said.

“(Scoring 1,000 points) is very special, but I could care less about the recognition and being in the record books,” she said candidly. “If I could be zero points and 10 rebounds a game, if that’s what would help our team, that’s what I’d want. It’s not about the personal achievements to me.”

John Denton’s Knights Insider appears on UCFathletics.com several times a week. E-mail John at jdenton@athletics.ucf.edu.

Senior D’Nay Daniels (Atlanta, Ga.) picked up her second double-double in as many games and her fourth this season, scoring 16 points and posting 10 rebounds as the UCF women’s basketball team defeated Conference USA opponent UAB (8-8, 0-3) Thursday night at the UCF Arena, 65-55. Knights’ (10-6, 3-0) guard Aisha Patrick (Rockledge, Fla.) recorded her first double-double of the season, scoring 17 points and pulling down a game-high 11 rebounds.

Patrick joins Daniels as the only two UCF players to record a double-double this season. She was aided by a career night at the free-throw line, connecting on 13-of-15 from the charity stripe.

Chelsie Wiley (Rockledge, Fla.) matched Patrick with a team-high 17 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the floor and 7-of-8 from the line.

The victory was the fifth-straight for the Knights, who move to 3-0 in C-USA contests this season for the first time since winning the league title in 2008-09. It also improved their record at home to 7-1 this season with all seven wins coming by double-digit margins.

Runs by both teams were the story of the first half. After taking an early lead, UAB fell behind by as much as 12 in the opening period as Daniels and Wiley combined for 16 points. However, a 12-2 run by the Blazers in the final five and a half minutes made it a two-point game at the break, 30-28.

The Knights stormed out to start the second half on an 11-0 run in the first five minutes. But it was another run by UAB that made it a much closer game with the surge time coming midway through the half.

The Blazers used a 16-4 run to pull within a point at 45-44 with 8:30 showing on the clock. That would be as close as they would get as UCF’s defense made key stops and scored in transition to pull away down the stretch, holding on for the 10-point win.

A season-best 88.9 percent (24-27) from the free-throw line sealed the win for the Knights. UAB was just 13-of-19 (68.4%) from the line in the game as they remain winless in league play.

UCF continued to dominate the glass, outrebounding its opponent for the tenth time this season, 37-29. The Knights have nine victories, including in all three C-USA games, when pulling down more boards than their opponents.

UCF will now head back out on the road for two-straight league games starting Sunday at SMU. The game between the Knights and the Mustangs is set for a 2 p.m. tip-off and can be seen nationally on ESPN2.