TAMPA—

The University of South Florida Bulls made easy work of the UConn Huskies on Saturday evening, defeating them 75-60 in a game that was oftentimes, not that close. Laquincy Rideau, David Collins, and Michael Durr scored in double-digits to lead their team to a comfortable victory.

Early in the game, it looked like UConn would be in control. They quickly jumped out to a 6-0 lead, while the Bulls missed seven of their first nine shots. USF would fight back, however, tying the game at 9 with 13:46 to go in the first half.

The Bulls would take their first lead of the game on a Durr layup with 9:24 remaining in the period to put them up 18-17. James Bouknight would regain the lead for the Huskies, 19-18, only to have a Durr free throw tie the game up again. A layup by Zack Dawson returned the lead to USF, 21-19, which they would hold onto for most of the remaining eight minutes in the half. Bouknight would sink a free throw with 3:34 to go that would tie the game at 27, but the Bulls outscored the Huskies 12 to 5 down the stretch. At one point, they would lead by as much as ten. Alterique Gilbert sank a three-pointer to cut the USF lead to seven, 39-32, at the halftime break.

The second half was all Bulls, who would enjoy a double-digit lead for all but one minute of the period. They led by 19 or more points seven times in the half, cruising to an easy victory over the Huskies.

Rideau led the Bulls with 17 points, eight rebounds, and six assists. Collins made seven of 11 from the free throw line on the way to scoring 15 points. Durr finished one rebound short of a double-double, scoring 12 points with nine rebounds.

USF head coach, Brian Gregory, addressed Rideau and Collins in his postgame press conference.

“When David Collins and Laquincy Rideau, and Laquincy Rideau and David Collins command a game the way that those two guys did, it just makes the game easier for everybody else,” said Gregory. “And that puts a lot of pressure on them, because they’re doing that against the best defensive players on the other team as well. So, just really pleased with those two guys and everybody. I thought Mike played well. I thought everybody made some big plays for us throughout the whole game.”

Just two Huskies scored in double-digits. Bouknight scored a team-leading 11 points with six rebounds. He was closely followed by Akok Akok, finished with ten points.

“The game didn’t start off all that well,” said Gregory. “But, we kind of hung in there, those first couple of minutes. I looked up, I thought were we down 10 or 12 to nothing, you know, and it was only six to nothing, because we did get a couple of stops.”

USF won the game at the free throw line, where they went 12-29 versus UConn’s 10-16, and on fast break points, where they held a 22-16 advantage.

Gregory was asked about the performance of Rashun Williams after the game.

“He’s been working his butt off,” said Gregory. “When you get hurt, you have to work twice as hard, because you have to do all the rehab, you have to do all the basketball stuff that you can do to stay in rhythm as much as you can. In the last four or five days, he’s shown progress in practice, so we felt comfortable in playing him. He did a great job today, for us. No question. He had a big tip in the first half, and then, obviously, hit a three at a critical time for us, as well.”

The Huskies, like the Bulls, came into the game following a double-digit loss in their previous contest. They drop to 9-5 (0-2) with two straight losses of 15 points or more.

“In our program, we talk about responding all the time. Obviously, our guys had a great response, today, against a very, very good, well-coached, hard-playing team.”

The Bulls improve to 8-7 (1-1) with the strong, bounce-back win. It also brings the all-time record with UConn to 4-20, where it is likely to stay for some time as the Huskies leave for the Big East conference.

UConn will now try to end their losing streak at home against a Tulane team who just beat Cincinnati. That game will be on CBSSN on Wednesday night. Tipoff is set for 9 PM EST.

USF heads to Greenville to face the much improved ECU Pirates. ECU has won four of their last five games. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 PM EST television broadcast available via ESPN3 streaming.