USF Men’s Basketball Drops 60-58 Heartbreaker at UConn

Despite the Huskies going 0-15 from three (on the day they were retiring Ray Allen’s Jersey, no less), USF couldn’t pull off the win, falling 60-58.

The Bulls (18-10, 7-9 AAC) went the last 6:11 minutes of the game without hitting a FG after Laquincy Rideau hit a three to put USF ahead 48-46. With 2.9 seconds left, David Collins was fouled on his three point attempt with the Bulls trailing by three. He made his first attempt but missed the second. It appears that Collins tried to intentionally miss the third free throw, but made it off the glass to put the score at 59-58.

The Bulls had a chance to win or tie it at the end, with the score at 60-58, UConn’s Alterique Gilbert missed his second free throw, giving the Bulls the ball with 2.4 seconds left after a timeout was called by Coach Brian Gregory.

The full court heave successfully got to Alexis Yetna, but he passed it straight to Gilbert (who appears to have traveled with time remaining) to end the game.

Collins ended up leading all scorers, getting 17 points, 11 of which came from the charity stripe. However, he shot poorly from the field going 3 for 8 including 0-4 from behind the arc.

Rideau also struggled to find a consistent shot, shooting 25% from the field and 2 for 7 from the three point line. Yetna wasn’t finding success either, going 5 for 13 but collecting 8 rebounds in the process.

USF did manage to out rebound the Huskies 46-33, with Durr leading the way with 10 rebounds.

On the other end, it was the Josh Carlton show for the Huskies (14-15, 5-11 AAC), who lead UConn in points (16), rebounds (9), and assists (3). USF struggled to match the defensive intensity that UConn was having, as the Huskies forced 14 turnovers, including 4 blocks and 6 steals.

USF will travel to New Orleans to take on Tulane on Wednesday night at 8:00 before taking on SMU at home on Sunday to end the regular season. The Bulls will need to win both games to reach 20 wins on the season.