March 4, 2010
Final Stats | Final Stats 
| 2010 C-USA Championship Bracket
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- UAB senior forward Tamika Dukes delivered one of her best performances of the season on senior night, notching her second double-double of the year with 14 points and 10 rebounds as the Blazers knocked off the Memphis Tigers, 64-53, on Thursday night at Bartow Arena. After capping off the regular season with three straight wins, UAB (14-14, 8-8 C-USA) earns the No. 6 seed for the upcoming Conference USA Championship and will face the hosting Tulsa Golden Hurricane (12-15, 6-10 C-USA) on Monday at 6 p.m. CST in the opening round of the tournament at the Reynolds Center in Tulsa, Okla.
The WBCA Pink Zone festivities were also a victory, as the Blazers raised over $9,000 to donate to the Coach Gene Bartow Fund for Cancer Research at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center.
"Going into tonight's game, knowing it was senior night and for a good cause - breast cancer awareness, it was very emotional," said Dukes, whose mother is currently battling cancer and joined her on the court during starter introductions. "I told myself before the game to go out there and play hard for my last game here and for my teammates."
Dukes collected her fourth career double-double and reached double figures for the 24th time this season, including 20 of the last 21 contests.
"Tamika has unbelievable determination," UAB head coach Audra Smith said. "She battled injuries when she first came to UAB, causing her to sit out her first year here. However, she battled through it all and has an impeccable senior season."
Senior forward Erica Simpson also was honored prior to the game and made her third start of the season.
"We owed Memphis this game," Simpson said. "We really wanted this win and went out and got it."
The freshmen also stepped up for the Blazers, as guard Amber Jones led all scorers with 16 points and guard Jala Harris added 12. Additionally, sophomore guard Miteka Trueheart had a solid game, matching her season-high of eight points, grabbing eight rebounds, dishing out three assists and adding three steals.
For Memphis (17-12, 10-6 C-USA), guard Brittany Carter led the way with 15 points, while guard Ramses Lonlack and forward Nicole Dickson each scored 11.
The Blazers shot 47 percent from beyond on the arc and were 13-of-16 from the stripe, while the stingy UAB defense held the Tigers to just 18 points in the first half. In fact, after the Tigers opened the game 3-0, UAB went on a 17-2 run and never trailed the rest of the game.
UAB took a 33-18 lead into half after leading by as many as 19 in the first period. Memphis opened the second half with an 8-2 run to cut the deficit to nine and kept it under 10 for the majority of the period. The Blazers staved off a late charge from the Tigers that cut the lead to five with 51 seconds left thanks to Dukes and Jones draining a combined six straight free throws to seal the victory.
