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USF Basketball Double Header: A Double Victory Saturday!

The men escape with a victory on the road while the women cruise to stay unbeaten in conference play.

By Anthony Vito
NCAA Basketball: South Florida at Memphis Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports

Bulls escape Greenville with a nice victory over ECU, 69-63.

USF (7-5, 3-3) led by 13 with under three minutes to play, what could possibly go wrong? Even with 17 turnovers and 55% free throw shooting the Bulls were able to stave off a late 9-0 run by the Pirates to get a much needed conference win on the road.

David Collins led all Bulls with 16 points on 43% shooting and added five assists, five rebounds, and one assist. The story was the ferocious start to the second half by USF who went on a 16-2 run to take a 43-34 lead - including three straight three pointers by Justin Brown - and never looked back.

The Bulls had the advantage in rebounds (41-33) and three point FG% (36%-20%) and held the Pirates to shooting 38% from the floor. Jayden Gardner only contributed ten points on 33% shooting, but that was in part to the hot hand of Tremont Robinson-White who put up 29 points on 64% shooting and 50% from downtown.

USF returns home to take on #11 Houston on Thursday at 6 p.m.

USF outpaces Houston in the second half, win in rout 80-51

Maria Alvarez scored a career high 23 points on 7-9 shooting and 6-8 from beyond the arc to lead #18 USF (9-1, 5-0) past Houston and stay undefeated in conference play. Five total Bulls reached double figure scoring and Bethy Mununga notched another double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds.

Sydni Harvey started the game scoring 11 points before Houston started to clamp down on defense leading by as may as seven mid-way through the second.

Then Maria Alvarez came alive.

The sophomore scored 11 straight points for the Bulls before closing out the half leading 44-38, and USF never looked back.

The Bulls outscored the Lady Cougars 36-13 in the second half finishing with 48% from the floor and 41% from downtown. Elisa Pinzan also finished with a career high 14 assists, which is tied for second-most in a game in program history.

USF will take their eight game winning streak to New Orleans to battle Tulane on Wednesday at 7 p.m.