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Men’s Basketball
Same old, same old here. Since the miracle win on the road over Tulane, the Bulls have dropped three straight against Houston, Memphis and Tulsa. Freshman David Collins scored a career-high 21 points in the loss to Memphis at the Sun Dome, but the Bulls defense couldn’t keep up, allowing 46 Tigers points in the paint.
On Sunday, the Bulls cut the Tulsa lead to just five points in the final minutes but were unable to rally despite a 22-point performance from Stephan Jiggets. The grad-transfer guard fell one-point shy of his season high and it was his fifth 20-plus point game of the year.
USF (8-16, 1-10 AAC), will hit the road for a Wednesday night game at the unfriendly confines of UConn before returning to the Sun Dome on Sunday afternoon for a tilt against Temple.
Women’s Basketball
These Bulls on the other hand, have won three straight games over Temple, Tulsa and Tulane. Senior forward Maria Jespersen, fresh off being named AAC player of the week, put together a 26 point and 13 rebound performance in the Bulls 71-57 win at Tulsa. Jespersen has since been named a finalist for the 2018 Katrina McClain award.
In a 63-53 win at Tulane on Saturday, the Bulls trailed for the first 17 minutes of the game before a late rally gave them a 33-27 halftime lead. The Bulls went 25-for-28 from the free throw line to seal the deal, the most free throws made in a single game this season. Junior guard Kitija Laksa continued her struggles from the floor, shooting 1-for-14 and 0-for-9 from three-point range. She scored 10 of her 12 points from the charity stripe.
USF (18-5, 8-2 AAC) returns to the Sun Dome for a three-game homestand, starting Wednesday night at 7 p.m. against East Carolina before a humongous tilt on Sunday afternoon against Ohio State.
Softball
The USF Softball regular season kicks off this week when the Bulls host Illinois State on Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. Following the game, the Bulls will host the USF-Wilson DeMarini Tournament over the weekend, first with a contest against Georgia State on Friday night.
Highlights of the weekend include games against ranked Michigan on Saturday at 3:45 p.m. before facing No. 2 Florida on Sunday afternoon at 4:15 p.m. Sandwiched in between, a game against UAB on Saturday night at 8:30 p.m.
Entering his 22nd season at USF, head coach Ken Eriksen is just five victories away from 900 career wins.
Baseball
USF will begin the 2018 baseball season at home on February 16-18 against No. 6 North Carolina.
Last week, redshirt sophomore LHP Shane McClanhan was named to the D1baseball.com third-team All-American list. It was the lefty’s third preseason All-American honor.
Men’s Soccer
In front of a rowdy crowd of nearly 1,900 at Corbett Stadium, the Bulls dropped a 2-0 preseason friendly to the MLS’ Chicago Fire on Saturday night.
USF will continue its spring schedule on Tuesday when former Bull Marcus Epps and MLS’ Philadelphia Union come to town for a 7 p.m. game at the Joe DiMaggio Sports Complex in Clearwater.
Track and Field
USF track and field finished off its third team event of the indoor season with three event victories and 16 top-five finishes over the weekend at the Akron Invitational.
D’Angelo Ennis (triple jump), Imani Carmouche (high jump) and Kaytlyn Gill (triple jump) all won their events for USF.
The Bulls will head to Birmingham for the conference indoor meet at the Samford Invitational that begins this Friday.
Men’s Golf
The USF men’s golf team starts it’s spring season with 36 holes today at the Sea Best Invitational in Ponte Vedra Beach. The tournament concludes with 18 holes Tuesday. USF grabbed an early lead on Monday and you can catch all the live scoring here.