FORT WORTH, Texas -- Vittoria Blasigh scored 20 points, Carla Brito added 17 and No. 3-seed South Florida defeated Rice 69-62 on Wednesday night to win the American Athletic Conference championship.
The Bulls will return to the NCAA tournament after a one-year absence. It will be South Florida's 10th trip to the Big Dance.
South Florida led 47-32 halfway through the third quarter before Malia Fisher scored six points in a 10-4 run that got the defending champion Owls to within 51-42 heading to the fourth quarter.
Ninth-seeded Rice opened the fourth with another four points and held USF scoreless for nearly four minutes. At that point, Mama Dembele scored twice in the paint to put the Bulls back up by nine.
Fisher scored in the paint to get Rice to within 62-57 with 40 seconds left, then the Bulls closed out the win by making 7 of 8 free throws.
Dembele had 13 points and eight assists, and Sammie Puisis scored 12 points for the Bulls (23-10). Blasigh had six rebounds plus three assists, and Brito contributed nine rebounds and three assists. South Florida made 16 of 19 free throws.
Sussy Ngulefac had 19 points, Fisher 17 and Dominique Ennis 14 for Rice (17-17).
Brito scored seven points in the first quarter and Blasigh added five as the Bulls took an 18-12 lead into the second quarter. A three-point play by Blasigh put USF up 27-16 with four minutes left in the half and they went on to lead 37-26 at halftime after she closed the scoring with another jumper. Blasigh and Brito led the way with 12 points each in the first half.
South Florida never trailed and there was one tie at 2-2.