<p>FORT WORTH, Texas — Elena Tsineke scored 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting, Sydni Harvey made six 3-pointers and finished with 22 points, and No. 20 South Florida beat UCF 64-54 on Thursday night for the first American Athletic Conference Tournament championship in program history. </p>
<p>It was the Bulls’ fifth appearance in the title game, having lost to Connecticut in the championship from 2015-18.</p>
<p>Top-seeded South Florida (18-3) earned an NCAA Tournament berth for the fifth time in the last seven years. </p>
<p>Harvey hit two of her four first-quarter 3s in an 8-0 run that gave USF the lead for good made it 18-11 going into the second and the Bulls held UCF scoreless for five-plus minutes during a 16-2 spurt that pushed the lead to 20 points just before halftime. </p>
<p>Diamond Battles led the second-seeded Knights (16-4) with 18 points and Masseny Kaba scored 16. </p>
<p>The Knights scored the final 12 points of the third quarter and the first six of the fourth to trim their deficit to 51-45 with 6:38 to play but they got no closer. </p>
<p>The Bulls outscored UCF 27-3 from 3-point range and made three more free throws (17) than the Knights attempted. </p>
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<p>More AP women’s college basketball: <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball">https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a>. </p>
