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Queens, N.Y. ? The University of South Florida women's basketball team came to the “Big Apple” looking to end a two-game losing streak at the expense of St. John's on Tuesday night.
The Red Storm had other ideas extending USF's losing skid to three games with a 63-51 loss.
The Bulls got off to a cold start going the first 6:40 of the game without hitting a field goal while the Red Storm got off to a 14-2 start. ChiChi Okpaleke would hit their first field goal of the game connecting on a driving lay-up with 13:18 on the clock to make the score 14-4.
USF would then use its own 7-2 run to cut the lead to five, 16-11, when Daiane Packer drained a three-pointer with 11:23 left in the half.
St. John's would step up its defense the remaining 10 minutes prior to the intermission holding the Bulls to just nine points the rest of the half to take a 32-20 lead into the locker room at the break.
The Bulls would hit just 25.8 percent (8-31) of their shots during the first 20 minutes while also connecting on 37.5 percent (3-8) of their shots from the free throw line.
The Red Storm blew the game open coming out of the locker room and scoring the first seven points of the second stanza to give them a 19 point lead, 39-20, on a three-point shot by Sky Lindsay with 16:43 left in the game.
Like the first half, Okpaleke would hit USF's first field goal of the half, however, that came nearly four minutes into the second half with 16:02 left in the clock.
The Bulls would have two consecutive chances to cut the lead to single digits, however failed to convert on either opportunity. Monique McLean would make the Bulls pay hitting a trey to improve the Red Storm lead from 11 to 14 points with 9:12 left.
USF, however, would put together a 12-4 run to finally get the St. John's lead to under 10 and eventually as close as four points, 48-44, on the three pointer by Shantia Grace with 4:50 left.
The Bulls would get the lead back to four, 53-49, with 2:17 left after St. John's raised the edge again to eight, 53-45, but could not get any closer.
The Red Storm would close the game out hitting eight straight free throws for the final margin.
On the night, USF shot just 30.6 percent (19-62) from the floor and just 55.6 percent (10-18) from the free throw line.
The Bulls were led by Grace's 16 points. Okpaleke and Brittany Denson added 11 points in the loss.
The Bulls will be back in action on Saturday, Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. when they return to the Sun Dome to face Syracuse in the first game of a two-game home stand. The game with the Orange can be heard live on 1010 Sports WQYK AM with Garrett Walvoord handling the play-by-play and Andrikk Frazier providing the color commentary. The contest will also be televised live in the Tampa Bay area on Catch 47 with Drew Felios calling the action and Amanda Miller with the color analysis.
