The Bulls dropped a huge game today to St. John's 59 to 65, dropping their overall record to 16-7 (5-5) on the season. While the loss stings, the bigger story in this loss is the effect on the Bulls' RPI rating that was 71 entering the game. This loss hurts USF's chances of getting into the NCAA tournament and puts them down another spot in the Big East standings, something the selection committees will be looking at.
The Bulls led early in the game, but with cold shooting and a ton of turnovers, the Red Storm were able to take the lead and held on to it. Alisia Jenkins had another monster game for the Bulls. She scored 17 points and pulled down 10 rebounds. At one point in the first half, she accounted for all the Bulls points to start the game. Akila McDonald had 5 points and 9 rebounds, controlling the paint. Andrell Smith had 8 points (just 3 out of 10 shooting) and led the team with 7 assists. Inga Orekhova struggled to find her range, going just 4 out of 13 shooting and scoring 13 total points. Andrea Smith had just 6 points on an ugly 1 of 14 shooting from the floor and committed 5 turnovers, some of them coming late, hurting the chances the Bulls had to come back in the final minutes.
Shenneika Smith had 19 points and 12 rebounds for the Red Storm and Aliyyah Hanford had 16 points and 9 rebounds.
With this loss, the ladies have their backs against the wall as the season slowly comes toward an end. They will need to string a few wins together late and boost their resume if they want to make the NCAA tournament. They will get a chance to get back to the winning side of the record book when they host Seton Hall on Saturday night at 7 P.M. (Seton Hall faces Villanova tonight).