USF Bulls defeat UCF Knights, 64-48

TAMPA—

The University of South Florida Bulls easily handled in-state rivals, the University of Central Florida Knights by a score of 64-48 on Sunday evening. Strong performances from Laquincy Rideau and Justin Brown led the way for the double-digit victory.

Early in the first half, the Knights led most of the first seven minutes of the game. A dunk by Rideau tied the game at ten with 12:28 remaining in the period, kicking off a 26-6 scoring run by the Bulls. With just over three minutes before the break, USF had their biggest lead of the game with 20 points, 36-16. The Knights would outscore the Bulls for the final few minutes, 6-2, but the Bulls took a commanding, 38-22 lead into the halftime break.

The scoring by both teams slowed down in the second half, but USF maintained a double-digit lead throughout. The Knights would get within ten on several occasions, but the Bulls would promptly pull away. USF’s biggest lead of the half, 19 points, came with just 2:10 to go in the game, 63-44.

Rideau and Brown finished with 14 points apiece to lead the Bulls. Zach Dawson, with 12 points, was the only other Bull in double-digits. Brown and Rideau also led the team in rebounds, with eight and seven, respectively.

Neither team shot particularly well, with USF edging the Knights, 36% to 35% from the field. The Bulls were much better from beyond the arc, making 27% compared to just 9%, a key statistic considering UCF was playing with large deficits throughout the game. UCF dominated the paint, 28-18, but USF made 80% of their free throws compared to 63% and the Bulls went to the line nearly twice as many times (30-16).

USF head coach, Brian Gregory, seemed to hint at the struggles in victory in his postgame opening comments.

“Sometimes it’s hard to play your rival just two weeks after you just played them and only a couple of games in between,” said Gregory. “At the same time, it’s a big game for us and I think we did a lot of good things.

“It really is two first class programs that are being built and this rivalry is going to be great for a long, long time.”

Both teams and coaches were participating in a nationwide autism awareness campaign, which hits close to home for the Bulls. USF assistant coach, Tom Herrion, has a son who falls on the spectrum.

“Robert Herrion addressed the team, last night,” said Gregory. “And, obviously, this was the autism awareness game, nationwide, among the college coaches. So, Robert talked to the team and described what autism is. And, things he can do and different things like that. He talked about the fact that he feels like he’s part of our program and that he looks up to those guys as big brothers and as role models. He just knew that we were going to get the job done. As soon as he said that, I knew it was over.”

Missing the game for USF was center, Michael Durr, who was replaced by the trio of Antun Maricevic, B.J. Mack, and Rashun Williams, who had never played the position before.

“Mike got banged up a little bit in the Tulane game,” said Gregory. “He was able to go through stuff the last couple of days. This morning, after shoot-around, after pre-game meal, just felt that he may not be able to go and didn’t feel comfortable. So, whenever a guy tells you that, you can’t play him.

“It’s just a bruised knee. Hopefully, with a week off, he should be good.”

Writers from the UCF beat noted that this is the first win for USF over UCF in five years, and asked how big the win is for building the program.

“There are certain steps you have to take,” said Gregory. “And to do it in front of that crowd, unbelievable crowd, I don’t know what the numbers were, but you know, I always use the term electric, it was really, really good. There are mile markers. This is a big one for us. To get the win at home against your rival, to break your streak. And, give them credit, they had the streak going. This could be one of those where you look two or three years down the road and you say ‘hey that was a big turning point in building the program that you have today’ and we need to continue to take those steps.”

UCF head coach, Johnny Dawkins, also addressed the media.

“It was a good performance by the Bulls and we have to look to bounce back,” said Dawkins. “When we played this rivalry, you know we won some really good ball games, but we’ve been fortunate. We’ve won games where they have been very, very close and we’ve been fortunate at the end to win some games or it’d be a lot better overall record than it is right now. I look at every game that we’ve played them has been an unbelievable game. This is probably, of all the games, probably been the most lopsided one of all of our games. So, we’ve been fortunate to pull out a couple of close victories, and tonight, they just had a really good game.”

UCF’s Collin Smith was the only Knight with a good game and 12 points. No other UCF player scored in double digits.

With the loss the Knights drop to 11-10 (2-7) in the midst of a three-game losing streak. They will head to Greenville to visit ECU on Thursday for a 7 PM EST tipoff.

The Bulls will try to keep things rolling as they hit the road for Memphis on Saturday. They lost a close one to the Tigers in Tampa a month ago, 68-64, and will try to even the series from the road. This matchup will tipoff at 4 PM EST, with coverage on CBS Sports Network.