W Kentucky women head back to NCAA, top UAB 72-57

Mar 10, 2018, 08:16 pm

FRISCO, Texas -- Tashia Brown scored seven of her 25 points in less than two minutes and Western Kentucky went on to claim its 20th NCAA Tournament berth with a 72-57 win over UAB in the Conference USA title game on Saturday.

With a one-point lead, Brown made two free throws, a 3-point play and added two free throws with 46 seconds left in the third quarter to give the second-seeded Lady Toppers a 55-47 lead. The top-seeded Blazers had run off nine straight, a 3 by Lea Kerstein, a 3-point play by Katelynn Thomas and Angela Vendrell's trey.

WKU (24-8) iced its second-straight NCAA berth and third in four years when Tashia Brown and Ivy Brown made back-to-back layups, Tashia Brown had two free throws and a jumper by Whitney Creech made it 67-50 with three minutes left.

Creech finished with 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Ivy Brown had 11 points and 12 rebounds and Raneem Elgedawy also had 11 points.

Rachael Childress led UAB (26-6) with 16 points and Thomas had 13. The Blazers were in the first title game since 2010 and haven't won a conference tournament since capturing the Great Midwest crown in 1994.