USF Snaps Losing Streak With Dominating 75-51 Win At Memphis

Payton Banks and Malik Martin each had 19 points to pace South Florida to a 75-51 American Athletic Conference win at Memphis Thursday night. The win snapped USF’s eight game losing streak. It was also the first win by the Bulls over Memphis in FedEx Forum.

Martin and Banks added nine and seven rebounds respectively. Stephan Jiggetts had 12 points and Isaiah Manderson had a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds. With his 19 points, Banks surpassed 1,000 points for his career.

Memphis forward Kyvon Davenport had 17 points and 10 rebounds and senior Jimario Rivers added 11 points, but the Tigers never threatened after the under 12 media timeout in the first half.

USF (9-21, 2-15 AAC) led for all but 51 seconds in this contest and were ahead by 27 with 8:26 left to play. Memphis (18-12, 9-8 AAC) was playing without junior point guard Jeremiah Martin who broke his left foot in the Tigers win over No. 23 Houston last Thursday. At the time of his injury Martin was the conference’s leading scorer averaging 18.9 points per game.

Winners of four straight coming into tonight’s game, Memphis was lethargic in the first half while USF was energized and played with a hunger on the way to a 45-23 halftime lead.

The win, the largest margin of victory for the Bulls in a conference game since March 4, 2015, was everything the Bulls could have hoped for when they boarded their flight to Memphis as they try to finish the regular season on a positive note.

UP Next

USF closes the regular season against SMU at the Sun Dome on Sunday afternoon (ESPNews, 2 p.m.). The Bulls look to avenge a 79-39 drubbing in the team’s first meeting in Texas back on New Year’s Eve.