Fourth Quarter Rally Pushes USF Women’s Basketball Past Tulsa 59-48

Redshirt sophomore Enna Pehadzic scored a team-high 20 points, freshman Luize Septe finished with a career-high 16 points and junior Tamara Henshaw registered her fourth double-double of the season as the USF women’s basketball rallied past Tulsa 59-48 at the Yuengling Center on Saturday afternoon.

“We had a really good week of practice, and we’ve been in so many of these [close] games. And I’m happy for the group because they deserved it,” head coach Jose Fernandez said.

The Bulls (13-12, 4-7 AAC) were down another player with point guard Sydni Harvey in the concussion protocol. She is considered day-to-day. Three Bulls played all 40 minutes, including freshman guard Elisa Pinzan who dished out seven assists as the primary ball-handler today.

Trailing 46-43 entering the fourth, the Bulls outscored the Golden Hurricane 16-2 and held Tulsa scoreless for the final seven minutes to preserve the win.

“We’re playing everybody’s first team with our reserves, and we’re in every game,” Fernandez added. “So that’s just a credit to a great staff and we’ve got great kids in our program.”

As a team, USF shot 39% (22-for-57) from the floor and only 24% (4-for-17) from three-point range but outrebounded Tulsa 40-39.

“The one constant thing you can do is you can always defend, and that’s what’s kept us in games, defending and rebounding,” Fernandez said.

USF returns to action on Wednesday night at ECU. Tip is set for 7 p.m.