USF Athletics Weekly Round-Up, 11/24-29

Women’s Basketball beats no. 7 Stanford on last second three, climbs to no. 13 in the latest AP Poll.

USF Women’s Basketball found more magic in the Bahamas as Jose’s squad led the defending national champion Stanford Cardinal for the majority of the game, but needed an ice-cold three from Junior Sydni Harvey with 2.8 seconds left to solidify their second top-10 win in a week. Harvey led all scorers with 15 points on 4-7 shooting (3-4 from beyond the arc) and added two steals to her stat line. Freshman Elena Tsineke added 14 points and five rebounds, and senior Dulcy Mendjiadeu Fankam added eight points off the bench. The story of this game was the dominance in the paint by junior Bethy Mununga who scored six points, but brought in 23(!!) rebounds on the day in 28 minutes - eight on the offensive glass. The Bulls out-rebounded the Cardinal 52-38, including 24-16 on the offensive side. Junior Elisa Pinzan added 11 points and six assists after her impressive 26 point output vs. no. 9 Oregon on Monday.

Anyway here’s the shot. The play-call and execution is chefs kiss

This was the only match-up for the Bulls in the Baha Mar Hoops Pink Flamingo Championship. The Cardinal beat no. 4 Indiana 69-66 and no. 2 Maryland 86-67 in their other games in the Bahamas.

After the successful week of toppling top-10 foes, USF climbs to #13 in the AP Poll. Harvey also received the American Women’s Basketball Player of the Week tallying 18.5 ppg in addition to the game winner vs. Stanford.

USF (5-2) heads to Texas to face UT- Arlington (4-1) on Thursday.

Men’s Basketball trails at halftime, finds way to win vs. Hampton 58-52. Loses to BC on the road, 64-49

It took two late threes by sophomore Jake Boggs and senior Javon Greene on Wednesday to erase a halftime deficit and defeat Hampton on Thanksgiving Eve in the Yuengling Center. Freshman Caleb Murphy had a team-high 12 points on 6-13 shooting while Greene added 10 points on 3-5 field goals (2-3 from three), four assists, and six steals. In a game that saw 11 lead changes, USF had 11 players see the court and register at least six minutes. The Bulls had the advantage in fast break points scoring 19 to Hampton’s 0 and added 30 points in the paint to Hampton’s 12. USF started the game ice-cold from the field only shooting 34% and 10% (1-10) from three, but rectified those struggles shooting just under 50% from the field and 50% (5-10) from three in the second half leading to the comeback.

On Monday, USF headed to Chestnut Hill to take on Boston College, but fell 64-49 in their first road tilt of the season. The Bulls kept it close in the first half only trailing 30-24 with both teams shooting 35% from the field, but in the second half the Eagles pulled away while hitting 53% of their shots. USF’s woes beyond the arc continued as they only shot 25% (4-16) for the game. BC only countered with a 33% clip from three, but they made up for it with a 36-18 advantage scoring in the paint. The Bulls did out-rebound BC 41-32 with 15 on the offensive glass, but only scored four second-chance points. Murphy led the Bulls in scoring with 11 points and shot 5-11 from the field while adding three assists. Sophomore Russel Tchewa and Freshman Sam Hines Jr. each added seven rebounds to lead the team on the evening.

USF (3-3) returns home to take on South Carolina State (1-7) on Friday.

Volleyball closes year with two losses on the road, only wins one conference game

On Thanksgiving eve, volleyball lost in straight sets to second-place Houston by scores of 25-23, 25-20, and 25-18. True Freshman Amiree Hendricks-Walker led the team in kills with 10 and Junior CC Clausen led the way with ten digs. This was the ninth match on the year in which USF lost in straight sets.

On Friday, the Bulls traveled to New Orleans for their final match at Tulane, losing three sets to one. After dropping the first set 25-20, the Bulls took set two 27-25 before dropping the final two 25-23 ad 25-21. Freshman Marta Cvitkovic had a game-high 16 kills, with Henricks-Walker adding another 13. Clausen had a team-high 18 digs in the loss.

USF concludes their season 7-24 (1-19 AAC) and ended on a four game losing streak.