Notre Dame, IN (January 28, 2006) ? The University of South Florida women's basketball team defeated No. 21/22 Notre Dame today, 68-64, in a key BIG EAST Conference match up.

The Bulls (14-7, 4-4 BIG EAST) jumped out quickly to a 12-5 lead just four minutes into the contest with freshman Shantia Grace (Sarasota, FL) netting eight of the 12 points.

The Fighting Irish (12-7, 3-5 BIG EAST) fought back to pull within two points, 20-18, only to have Jessica Jackson (Roswell, GA) drain a three-pointer ? for three of her six first half points ? and Jessica Dickson (Ocala, FL) converted on a short jumper off a steal to stretch the USF to 25-18.

The Bulls would close the half on a 9-3 run to take a 34-21 advantage into the locker room at the intermission.

Notre Dame came out of the locker room at the half on fire holding the Bulls scoreless through the first 6:30 of the second half and used a 14-5 run to cut the lead to 39-34 with 11:34 left.

The Fighting Irish would take its first lead of the game, 47-46, with 6:24 left on a Megan Duffy lay up.

The two teams would exchange leads the remainder of regulation with Notre Dame taking a three point advantage with 24 seconds left.

USF would have a last second chance to tie the game and Ezria Parsons (Bushnell, FL) came up big hitting her third trey of the year with two seconds to tie the game and send the contest into overtime.

The Bulls would then proceed to outscore the Fighting Irish 10-6 in the extra session for the win.

Dickson, and All-America candidate ? and the nation's leading scorer - paced the way with 18 points while Jackson and Nalini Miller (Capital Heights, MD) added 12 and 10 points respectively.

The Bulls will return home on Tuesday, Jan. 31 when it faces Villanova at 7 p.m. in the Sun Dome

For tickets information, call the USF athletic ticket office at 1-800-GoBulls.