USF Basketball Double Header: Men Stumble Against Tulsa 61-51, Women Trounce Wichita State 66-48

USF Men’s Starters Struggled Against Tulsa, loses 61-51

The USF men’s basketball team had a debilitated offense in what was being advertised as a defensive match against Tulsa Wednesday afternoon.

For the first eight minutes of the game, USF was held to just one made field goal as the Golden Hurricane built a 14-4 lead to begin the game. However, USF did find a quick offensive spark, lead by sophomore guard Jamir Chaplin. Chaplin was able to hit an old-fashioned three with 3:06 left in the first half to tie the game at 20. In all, Chaplin lead the Bulls with a career-high 16 points, followed by Xavier Castañeda and Caleb Murphy who accumulated 12 points each.

Although these three USF players scored in double digits, an untimely stumble by key starters resulted in their lowest offensive output this season. David Collins and Justin Brown were both held scoreless, Alexis Yetna didn’t score until 2:49 left in the game, and Michael Durr scored a lowly four points, despite collecting 11 rebounds. Six Bulls accounted for the 51 points scored, including Luke Anderson who scored three points in this outing.

On the other side, Tulsa had proven to be a formidable defensive team this season, especially after their victory over then number five Houston a few nights prior.

The reigning AAC champion Golden Hurricane were lead by Brandon Rachal, who scored 15 points and had six rebounds on the afternoon. Behind him in scoring was Austin Richie and Elijah Joiner with 13 points a piece. The story of Tulsa this season has been their defense, and they were able to hold USF to 32% shooting (18-for-55) and produced 15 turnovers.

USF men’s basketball (6-5, 2-3 in AAC) will look to find their offensive output this upcoming Saturday January 9th, as they travel up to Greenville to take on ECU (7-2, 1-2 in AAC).

Tsineke Hits Career High 31 Points, Women’s Basketball Shellacs Wichita State 66-48

Elena Tsineke and USF women’s basketball used a relentless third quarter to race past the Shockers 66-48. The game started with Wichita State going 0-14 from the field during the entire first quarter, but hit three free throws to give the Bulls a 12-3 advantage.

The Shockers finally hit their first basket at the 8:15 mark in the second. Asia Strong got the first basket, and lead the depleted Shockers with 17 points and 7 rebounds. With Wichita State only traveling 7 players, exhaustion eventually overcame them leading to the Bulls running away from the Shockers with the largest lead being 24 points early in the fourth quarter.

Reigning AAC Freshman of the Year Elena Tsineke had an explosive third quarter, scoring 14 points in the third period alone. Maria Alvarez found her spot behind the arc, hitting three three’s to collect nine points, Bethy Mununga had a relatively quiet night, scoring only five points and accumulating eight rebounds. Eliza Pinzan had nine assists to go along with three points and five rebounds, and Kristyna Brabencova scored 10 points with four rebounds.

USF women’s basketball will look to continue their perfect start to conference play as they host the Houston Cougars on Saturday January 9th.