USF Men’s Basketball Falls Short At UConn 68-65

Despite winning nearly every statistical category, the USF men’s basketball team late rally came up a bit short in a 68-65 loss to UConn at Gampel Pavillion on Wednesday night.

For the second straight game, and 11th time this season, grad transfer guard Stephan Jiggetts led USF in scoring with 18 points and four assists. The guard had just three points at the half before heating up and leading the Bulls’ charge.

Outside of the final few minutes of the first half, the Bulls dominated the glass throughout the game. USF outrebounded UConn 36-27, including a key 15-4 advantage on the offensive end. The Bulls had four different players with at least five rebounds.

Freshman guard David Collins finished off his third consecutive double-digit point game with 11. He added two rebounds and an assist in 32 minutes.

Senior forward Isaiah Manderson finished second in scoring with 15 points, adding eight rebounds and an assist.

USF trailed 35-23 at halftime after shooting 28% (8-for-28) from the field and 27% (3-for-11) from three-point range in the first half.

The Bulls held a 24-15 advantage in bench points and totaled 24 second chance points to the Huskies four to close the gap in the second half.

Grad transfer Terrence Samuel played 31 minutes in his return to UConn, he grabbed four rebounds but did not score. Samuel helped the Huskies to the 2014 national title as a freshman.

Another bright spot, USF shot 93 % (14-for-15) from the free throw line in the game, tying the sixth-best performance in team history in a game in terms of free throw percentage.

Trailing 68-65, the Bulls (8-17, 1-11 AAC) had a chance to tie at the buzzer before a Collins three-ball just missed to keep USF winless all-time in Storrs.

USF will return home on Saturday afternoon for a noon tip against Temple.