Ashia Kelly helps UCF to big victory

TOURNAMENT TIME — Ashia Kelly (center) hopes to help UCF win another C-USA tourney. Photo from The Hattiesburg American HATTIESBURG, Miss. — In their regular-season finale here against Southern Miss, one after another, Central Florida players stepped up and made plays, and one after another, UCF players stepped up and made shots.

No player stepped up more than Kilgore native and sophomore Ashia Kelly, who surpassed her career-high in points in the second half alone and led six players in double figures as the aggressive Knights (10-15, 7-9 CUSA) closed the regular season with an 84-72 victory at Southern Miss (9-20, 5-11) Wednesday night in the regular season finale for both teams.

“We wanted to come in here tonight and be aggressive offensively, and I tried to do my part to do that for our team,” said Kelly, who helped get KHS into the postseason each year she played for the Lady Bulldogs (2004-08). “This is a tough place to play, and since it was Senior Night we knew they would be fired up. We did a good job stepping up to the challenge and ending our regular season on a good note.”

Kelly, who chose UCF, located in Orlando, over several other college programs, is part of a young nucleus of players at UCF that helped the Knights win the C-USA tournament last year in New Orleans. They’d love to be repeat champions, and this year’s tournament begins Monday in Tulsa, Okla. For UCF, it begins at noon against Marshall, a team that the Knights split two games with this year.

Against Southern Miss, Kelly led a Knight offense that shot over 50 percent for the first time in C-USA play. UCF shot over 50 percent in both halves and converted 31-of-58 shots from the field for 53.4 percent.

It was the sixth win in nine games for UCF.

Kelly, battling with Lady Eagles’ all-conference player Pauline Love throughout the night, added eight rebounds as UCF outrebounded Southern Miss 43-26. It was the 14th time in 16 C-USA games that UCF had held an edge on the glass.

“Ashia is a player that we have a lot of confidence in on both ends of the floor,” said head coach Joi Williams. “She made some key shots when Southern Miss was making a run in the second half, and she also pulled down some important rebounds for us.”

For the latest news on the Knights, log on to UCFAthletics. com.

Ashia Kelly is just one of dozens of former Kilgorearea athletes in college or professional sports. Anyone with an update on any of these young men and women may contact Kilgore News Herald sports editor Mitch Lucas, either by phone at (903) 984-2593, or by emailing sports@kilgorenewsherald. com.

Andrew Gavin is the sports information director at the University of Central Florida. Sports editor Mitch Lucas contributed to this story.