TAMPA –
The University of South Florida Bulls were unable to hold off a late charge by the University of Cincinnati Bearcats on Tuesday, who won going away, 79-67. The Bulls, who lead for more than 25 minutes of the game, still had a small lead with less than five minutes to go in regulation. The Bearcats closed strong, however, erasing all memory of what was a very competitive game.
In the first half, both teams traded the lead for the first seven minutes. The Bulls took a 27-26 lead with 7:07 to go in the period to begin a 10-2 run to go up 36-28 with 2:20 to go. That eight point lead would be the biggest of the half for USF, who would take a six point, 39-33 lead into halftime.
The Bulls would continue to control the game seven minutes into the second half, building a lead of 13 points, 56-43, with 13:09 to go in the game. A series of missteps by USF, capitalized upon by Cincinnati, allowed the Bearcats to go on a 15-2 run and tie the game at 58 with 6:39 on the clock. The Bulls would hold on for the next few minutes, actually leading by a pair, 62-60 with 4:46 to go, but the Bearcats would finish on a tear, going 19-7 down the stretch to win big, 79-67.
After the game, USF head coach, Brian Gregory, spoke with the media.
“Give Cincinnati a ton of credit in terms of just kind of digging down there when we got the lead,” said Gregory. “And, it wasn’t one thing that got us. They were able to get us in a lot of different areas. We turned the ball over during that stretch. We had three or four shots at the rim that we didn’t finish. They made some high level offensive plays. They got the ball into Tre for post-ups.”
Tre Scott finished second in scoring for the Bearcats, with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Keith Williams led the team with a career-high 30 points.
“Unfortunately, some of our, the things we have struggled with, came into play again. The turnovers in second half, 12 turnovers in the second half.”
Five of those 12 second half turnovers happened after Cincinnati took their late lead in the game. One of those five turnovers was a technical foul called against Gregory. In the game, the turnovers we fairly balanced, with USF giving the ball up 19 times to the Bearcats’ 14. The big difference was how each team capitalized on those turnovers. Cincinnati outscored the Bulls 24-17 off of turnovers.
The Bulls struggled most on offense in the second half, getting outscored 46-28 in the period and shooting just 35%, after making 50% in the first half. Justin Brown was the high scoring Bull, with 16 points, followed closely by Laquincy Rideau, who scored 14 of his 15 points in the first half. He also finished with 8 assists, four in each half of play. Michael Durr also finished in double-digits with 13 points.
Gregory was asked if the difference in the halves was due to being limited beyond the arc in the second period. The Bulls were 6-12 in the first half.
“What it was, we drove the ball too deep in those last 13 minutes. Because, once you get it that deep, there is no option,” said Gregory. “The only option is to make it, or get the shot up in the rim and get an offensive rebound, because they were swarming. You’ve got to get rid of it before the swarm comes.”
“It was like a cluster of four or five different things, that all put together, like a perfect storm,” said Gregory. “We could not get our defense set, that’s why they shot 64% in the second half.”
One of those things was far superior shooting. The Bearcats hit 57% for the game, compared to 43% for the Bulls. Cincinnati also dominated the paint, 42-16.
The Bearcats improve to 19-10 (12-5). They will host Temple for an 8 PM EST tipoff on Saturday. The regular season finale will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.
USF will close the regular season by hosting SMU on Saturday. That game will tipoff at 7 PM, with television broadcast available on ESPN3.
