Chicago, IL (February 6, 2007) - The University of South Florida women's basketball team came into Tuesday night's contest at DePaul looking to extend its winning streak to four games, but knew it would have to reverse history in order to get that victory. Entering Tuesday, the Bulls had won just one game at DePaul, in five tries, with that being an 80-65 victory on Jan. 25, 1998.
The Bulls, however, will have to wait at least another year before trying to get that second victory over the Blue Demons on their home floor as they dropped a 72-65 decision to DePaul at McGrath Arena. The loss ends USF's three-game winning streak and drops its record to 17-6 and 7-3 in the BIG EAST.
Like has become custom for the Bulls on the road, they once again got off to a slow start offensively hitting just five of their first 15 shots (33.3 percent) through the first 8:30 of the game. Shantia Grace (Sarasota, FL) would account for three of the Bulls' five field goals made during that stretch.
USF (17-6, 7-3 BIG EAST) would find itself outplayed for the majority of the first half and would never get in an offensive groove. All-America and National Player of the Year candidate Jessica Dickson (Ocala, FL), hit her first field goal of the game with 4:22 left in the first half to pull the Bulls to six points, 25-19.
USF would enter the locker room at the intermission down six, 31-25.
The Bulls would come out at the beginning of the second half cutting into the DePaul lead with Dickson hitting two free throws on back-to-back possessions making the score 31-29 with 18:42 left.
The Blue Demons (15-9, 5-6 BIG EAST would lead by as many 13 points on multiple occasions, however USF would use a 7-2 run from the 9:30 mark of the second half to 7:28 left to pull to six again.
The Bulls would get to as close as five points four times in the closing minutes but could not get any closer.
Dickson would finish the game with 25 points ? her third straight 20-plus point outing ? while Grace added 13 points in the loss.
The Bulls will return home for their highly anticipated match up against Pittsburgh on Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Sun Dome. The game can be heard live on 860-AM WGUL with Tom Krasniqi.
For tickets call the USF athletics ticket office at 1-800-GoBulls or log onto www.GoUSFBulls.com.
