Final Stats: USF 99, St. Leo 70 HTML | PDF
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) ? Freshman guard Dominique Jones debuted with a game-high 23 points and sophomore guard Chris Howard added 18 as the University of South Florida routed St. Leo in a 99-70 exhibition win Wednesday night at the USF Sun Dome.
Howard, who has just 13 starts in two years at USF due to injuries, played 28-minutes and went 6-of-9 from the floor and was 5-for-6 on free throws. Howard added six assists. Jones was 10-15 from the field, with five rebounds, five steals and four assists.
The Bulls, in their debut of new head coach Stan Heath, led 51-25 at halftime and cruised behind All-BIG EAST center Kentrell Gransberry, who had 11 points and a game-high seven rebounds.
"You win by 29, so I think you should feel good about that," said Heath. "But we sure didn't guard the three. We've got a lot of things to work on. It seemed like we had this tendency to play a little relaxed at times."
Heath saw USF start off sluggish and was down 13-11 to the Lions after five minutes into the first half. But the Bulls outscored St. Leo 40-12 to end the first half and were never threatened in the second half.
"It was a boost," said Howard said about playing the opening game of the season after missing the first half of last season with a knee injury. "Last year I didn't have this opportunity to get my legs underneath me."
St. Leo, a Division II college 45 minutes north of Tampa, were led by guard Dusty Driggs, who finished with a team-high 21 points and went 7-of-12 from three-point range. Junior forward Kyle Rowland and sophomore forward Jordan Prais both added 11 points, while Rowland went 6-for-6 on free throws.
"It felt good getting all my jitters out," said Jones about his college debut. "I've never played a college game before so it felt good. I'm looking forward to the future."
The Lions were down more than 20 points for nearly all of the second half, as Bulls freshman guard Dante Curry and junior guard Jesus Verdejo added 15 and nine points, respectively.
"I saw a lot of positive things," said Heath. "We took care of the ball. We took some pretty good shots. We were pretty active at times defensively, got steals, got out in transition and pretty much shared the ball well. But we have a lot of things to clean up. We'll break down the film and continue to try and get better."
The regular-season home opener is set for Friday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m. against Cleveland State as part of the Glenn Wilkes Classic. Season and group tickets for USF home basketball games can be purchased by calling 1-800-GoBulls. Single-game tickets can be purchased online at Ticketmaster.com or via Ticketmaster phone at 813-287-8844.
