USF Women’s Basketball Drops Third Straight With 57-56 Loss To Cincinnati

Despite career-high efforts from Enna Pehadzic and Luize Septe, the USF women’s basketball team dropped a third straight game 57-56 to the Cincinnati Bearcats in front of 2,472 at the Yuengling Center on Wednesday night.

“This team isn’t made-up to be in these one and two-possession games,” head coach Jose Fernandez said. “We don’t have scoring in our lineup right now so we’ve got to get back to practice.”

The Bulls (11-10, 2-5 AAC) opened the game on a 9-2 run and led by as much as 10 in the second quarter before settling for a 28-28 tie at halftime.

In a mostly back-and-forth third quarter, Pehadzic’s three consecutive treys helped USF build a 48-47 lead entering the final period.

The redshirt sophomore finished with a career-high 22 points, knocked down five three-pointers and hauled in three rebounds.

“I just wanted to be aggressive right from the start,” Pehadzic said. “We’re taking a step in the right direction, but we have to start finishing every possession.”

Trailing 55-54 with 2:39 remaining, the Bulls got a layup from redshirt sophomore Shae Leverett to take a one-point lead but the Bearcats responded immediately with a jumper of their own to move in front with only 1:11 left. Neither team scored the rest of the way.

As a team, the Bulls shot 38% (20-for-52) from the floor, 38% (8-for-21) from three-point range and only 50% (8-for-16) from the free throw line.

USF returns to action on Sunday afternoon in Oviedo for a rematch with C. Tip is scheduled for 1 p.m. on ESPN2.

Notables:

• Septe, a true freshman, had her best game in the green and gold, finishing with career-high 10 points, a team-high eight assists and two blocks.
• Junior Alyssa Rader remains sidelined with concussion symptoms.