(No) Surprise, (No) Surprise: Men’s Basketball Loses To Memphis, Women’s Basketball Pounds ECU

Memphis 62, USF MBB 56

I’ve been incredibly busy this past week. Basically all I had time to write was 5QF, because it takes hardly any time at all. So imagine my surprise when I walked into a Dave & Buster’s type place and the USF basketball game was on. Not only that, but they were winning 12-5!

Of course, scoring points quickly and leading superior teams on the road is not the natural state of USF men’s basketball, and unfortunately it didn’t last very long. The Bulls had scored 12 points in the first 3:28 of the half, then scored only 10 in the last 16:26. The Tigers led 30-22 at the break, and their lead got as high as 16 in the second half.

But give USF a lot of credit - they got themselves back in the game. Trailing 50-34 with 9:10 eft, they took advantage of some very cold Memphis shooting and went on a 20-6 run over the next seven minutes. They even had two chances to tie the game. On the first one, Ruben Guerrero fouled out of the game. On the second, Geno Thorpe had the ball stolen by Markel Crawford.

Crawford carried Memphis through this game, scoring 30 points. Jimario Rivers had 12 points and 11 rebounds. Thorpe and Malik Fitts each scored 12 points for USF.

The Bulls may want to find a win this week, either at UCF Tuesday night or home against Tulsa on Saturday. If they don’t, the following five games are UConn, at Cincinnati, Memphis again, at Temple, and at UConn.

USF WBB 79, East Carolina 48

You might have heard what happened to USF Tuesday night at UConn. The Huskies were trying to tie their own NCAA consecutive wins record, USF always has their full attention when the two teams meet, and apparently the Huskies managed to gin up some #DISRESPEKT to motivate them even further. We won’t even tell you the final score. It was really bad.

There was no hangover for the Bulls, though. After figuring out East Carolina’s strategy (dump it inside early and often), they got to work and blew the Pirates away. Ariadna Pujol led USF with 23 points, while Kitija Laksa and Maria Jesperson each added 20. Pujol and Jesperson grabbed eight rebounds apiece. USF shot 51% from the field and held ECU to only 33%.

The women’s team has two more home games next week. A conference matchup with Memphis tips off Tuesday at 7:00 p.m., followed by a marquee non-conference game against Louisville on Sunday, January 22 at 2:00 p.m.