Notes From Day Three of American Conference Tournament

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - March 13, 2026

SNAPSHOTS FROM LEGACY ARENA ON DAY 3 OF THE AMERICAN CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT

Thursday’s results: Women’s games: No. 5 North Texas 76, No. 4 Tulsa 73; No. 6 UTSA 62, No. 2 USF 51. Men’s games: No. 5 Charlotte 74, No. 9 Tulane 60; No. 6 North Texas 74, No. 7 FAU 70.

Friday’s schedule: Men’s games: No. 4 UAB vs. No. 5 Charlotte, noon; No. 3 Tulsa vs. No. 6 North Texas, 2 p.m.  Women’s games: No. 1 Rice vs. No. 5 North Texas, 6 p.m.; No. 2 ECU vs. No. 6 UTSA, 8 p.m.

JUST A REGULAR GAME

The North Texas women, fresh off a pair of tournament wins, plays another game on Friday. Or should we say the Mean Green plays “just a regular game.”

That’s how North Texas guard Jazzy Owens-Barnett describes her team’s semifinal game, which tips on Friday night at 6.

“It's the game in the semis,” Owens-Barnett said after scoring 14 points, dishing out nine assists and grabbing five rebounds in a win over Tulsa. “It's just the next team we play. Obviously, they're a very talented gifted team, but I think we're also talented and gifted. I think it's going to be a really good matchup and I'm excited to play in the game and be able to hopefully come out on the great side of that.”

The opponent, by the way, is regular season champion Rice, which won its first 17 conference games before losing to UTSA on the final day of the regular season. Rice beat North Texas twice this season but both were close games. The Owls won 58-54 at North Texas on Jan. 17 and beat the Green Wave 70-68 in Houston on Feb. 10.

ICE CAKE AND ICE CREAM AND CHASING A CHAMPIONSHIP

UTSA punched a ticket to its third game in three days with the 62-51 win over defending American Conference Tournament champion South Florida. It was a nice birthday present for UTSA forward Cheyenne Rowe, who had 25 points and 11 rebounds in the win.

Karen Aston, UTSA’s head coach, possibly has a unique presentation plan to prepare for Friday night’s semifinal game against No. 2 seed East Carolina.

“At this point I think you're playing to get into the championship game,” said Aston. “I don't think fatigue will matter. I think it's just a matter of continuing to stay focused and continuing to stay detail-oriented. Maybe we need to have ice cream with the cheerleaders again. We did that last night. Maybe we'll try that again. I think Chey gets cupcakes today maybe. So, yeah, happy birthday again. I knew you weren't going home on your birthday.”

EMOTIONAL ENDING FOR TULANE

Tulane head coach Ron Hunter saw it coming. He saw a team that was mentally and physically exhausted from an emotionally taxing season. It’s also been an emotional week with the overtime loss to Memphis in the regular season finale and ended the Tigers season in a tournament win on Wednesday.

“I'll be honest with you, I thought that when we left to come to this tournament, I thought emotionally we were drained after the Memphis game,” Hunter said. “I really did. With all the things that we had gone through and all the talks and all the things, these kids have given me everything. When we walked out of there, I was really concerned coming into the tournament, because I thought emotionally we were drained.”

It didn’t help that they had to turn around and play less than 24 hours after finishing off Memphis.

“Man, they came out yesterday and just gave it everything they got,” Hunter said. “Then last night right before we went to bed and you can just see us. You know, it was almost -- not so much of a celebration, but you can just see Memphis has knocked us out of the tournament (before), and these guys wanted that more than anything. I thought would we have enough? Would we have enough to get through today?”