NEW ORLEANS – The SMU women’s basketball team fell to the University of Central Florida Knights (16-16) 62-51 in the semi-final round of the Conference USA Tournament.

While SMU’s hopes of winning the conference tournament are out of reach, the team is guaranteed an appearance in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament should they fail to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

“At least we’re not done with our season,” said head coach Rhonda Rompola. “We are still able to play and that is important, especially when you don’t have many seniors. There’s nothing like having that experience.”

The Knights came out strong in the beginning, holding the Mustangs at four points for over five minutes until freshmen Christine Elliott and Samantha Mahnsemith combined for four points to tie the game at 8-8 at 11:55.

The Mustangs struggled to take the lead, as UCF’s Emma Cannon pulled down nine rebounds in the first half, leading to a 17-14 lead until SMU’s freshman Heidi Brandenburg hit a pair of free throws to put SMU within one point of the No.8 seeded Knights.

Junior Alice Severin hit a basket ay 4:27 to give SMU their first lead of the game. As the lead changed three more times in the final two minutes of play, Severin put the Mustangs back on top with 1:49 remaining at 21-20, but a last minute shot by Wiley with six seconds remaining sent the Mustangs into the locker room at halftime down 24-20.

In the second half, SMU regained the advantage at 26-24 with a three-pointer by sophomore Haley Day. About three minutes later, junior Jillian Samuels nailed another three to give SMU their largest lead at 31-27.

In the final eight minutes of play, SMU captured the lead on two occasions, but never pulling ahead of UCF by one point, the Knights took away SMU’s hope of a championship game appearance with a five-point lead with 2:49 remaining.

With just under one minute remaining, UCF racked up nine points in free throws, holding the Mustangs to just four points in the final two minutes.

“We just got out worked,” said junior Brittany Gilliam, posting only 11 points in the Mustang’s loss. “The perimeter was costly and we tried to do something to get them out of their rhythm, but that’s all we could do.”

UCF will take on the winner between Southern Miss and Marshall tomorrow at 2 p.m. in the championship game.