Jamaica, NY (February 5, 2006) ? The University of South Florida women's basketball team had its two-game winning streak snapped with a 78-71 loss to No. 25/25 St. John's Sunday after noon at Carnesecca Arena. The contest was the Bulls eighth game this season against a team ranked in the Top 25.
The Bulls (15-8, 5-5 BIG EAST) started out slowly hitting just two-of-seven from the field through the first 5:04 of the first half and allowed the Red Storm to take an early 7-2 lead during that stretch.
Ezria Parsons (Bushnell, FL) would hit USF's first field goal with 15:55 left in the first half
The Bulls seemed to get things going using a 10-4, while hitting four of their next six shots, to take a 16-11 lead with 11:16 left on a jumper by Rachael Sheats (Marietta, GA).
Both teams would go back and forth with neither team holding more than a four-point edge the rest of the half.
St. John's (18-4, 8-3 BIG EAST) would close the first half on a x-x run and take a 35-32 lead into the locker room at the intermission.
The Red Storm would come out strong in the second stanza behind Greeba Barlow who scored nine of St. John's first 13 points.
St. John's would go out to a seven-point lead, 48-41, with 14:56 left on a Barlow jumper. USF, however would put together its last big run outscoring the Red Storm 6-0 to cut the lead to one, 48-47 on a Nalini Miller (Capital Heights, MD) jumper with 11:49 remaining.
The Bulls would get as close as four points in the final 10 minutes of action, St. John's would hit eight of its last 12 free throws, including its last seven straight en route to the win.
USF put four players in double figures for the second straight game. Jessica Dickson (Ocala, FL) led the way with 18 points and Shantia Grace (Sarasota, FL) added 15 in the loss. Sheats and Miller chipped in with 13 and 12 respectively.
Barlow scored a game-high 20 points and Angela Clark had 16 and 10 rebounds.
The Bulls will return to the metropolitan New York area to face Seton Hall on Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m.
USF will return to the Sun Dome on Saturday, Feb. 11 to face Pittsburgh at 7 p.m.
