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No. 16 USF Women’s Basketball Cruises Past Tulane 72-53

The Bulls put away their toughest conference test yet by taking down Tulane in the Big Easy.

By Robert Steeg
Robert Steeg / The Daily Stampede

USF women’s basketball passed their toughest conference test so far this season on Wednesday when cruising past Tulane 72-53 in New Orleans.

The Green Wave (7-3, 3-2 AAC) started to roll early, springing out to a 12-4 advantage in the first quarter. They were led by JerKaila Jordan, who scored six of her 11 points in the first five minutes of the game. However, the momentum started to swing the other way thanks to offensive rebounding and second chance points by a whole host of Bulls.

USF (10-1, 7-0) was able to control the Green Wave by out-rebounding them 43-31, which resulted in a 17-9 second-chance points advantage. Additionally, USF forced 16 turnovers and got 21 points off of them.

The game was tied at 14 after the first, but a quick 16-7 advantage in the second quarter gave the Bulls a 30-21 lead going into halftime. Elisa Pinzan lead all scorers with 22 points, and collected three rebounds and seven assists, including collecting her 300th career assist midway through the third quarter.

As is the case this season, USF was able to put the game away in the third, outscoring Tulane 27-11 thanks to some hot three point shooting by Pinzan, Maria Alvarez and Sydni Harvey and Elisa Pinzan to put the game well out of reach.

On the other end, Tulane was lead by Arsula Clark, who scored 20 points and five rebounds while the aforementioned Jordan finished with 11 points and four boards. Pre-season All-Conference first team honoree Krystal Freeman scored 10 with eight rebounds.

In all, four Bulls hit double-digit scoring with Pinzan (22), Alvarez (12), Tsineke (12), and Harvey (10) all reaching the mark. Bethy Mununga was on the cusp of another double-double, scoring nine points and collecting nine rebounds on the night.

The Bulls will look to continue their perfect start to conference play when hosting Memphis on January 17 in the Yuengling Center. Thus far, Memphis has given the Bulls their closest game of the season, when USF escaped the Tigers 65-58 back in mid-December.