CINCINNATI, Ohio. ? The University of South Florida women's basketball team came into today's game with Cincinnati, at Fifth Third Arena, looking for its first back-to-back wins since the end of December. The Bulls also headed into the contest on the heels of their biggest win of the season, last Tuesday against No. 25/25 DePaul. Now, USF looked to carry that momentum over in a critical match-up between two teams looking to head to Hartford in March for the BIG EAST Tournament.
Unfortunately, for the Bulls, they got off to a start more like they did in their loss to Louisville one week ago as the Bearcats handed USF a heartbreaking 74-67 loss.
Just like last Saturday against the Cardinals, when it came out and trailed 10-0 after the first 90 seconds, USF (12-11, 2-8 BIG EAST) came out flat in the first half as Cincinnati jumped out to a fast 13-0 lead through the first 4:12 of the game before Porche Grant took a pass from Jazmine Sepulveda and converted on a lay-up with 15:20 left.
After a Shantia Grace three-pointer, Sepulveda would help get the Bulls back into the contest hitting three-straight trey's on three consecutive possessions to make the score 20-14.
The Bearcats would then equal its biggest lead of the game when they stretched its edge back to 13 points, 27-14, on a jumper by Natasha Graboski with 9:47 left in the first stanza.
After trading baskets for the next two minutes, USF would use a 5-0 run, led by a Porche Grant field goal and a Sepulveda three-pointer, to cut the lead to seven, 31-24, with 5:18 left before intermission.
The Bulls would eventually take the same margin into the locker room trailing at the break, 40-33.
Through the first 20 minutes USF shot 37.9 percent from the field (11-29), however it was its shooting from behind the three-point arc and the free throw line that kept the Bulls in the contest. USF was dead-on hitting 53.8 percent (7-13) of its trey's and was a perfect 4-4 (100 percent) from the charity stripe.
The Bulls came out in the second stanza much like Cincinnati in the first half. USF jumped out to a 6-0 start to get as close as it would the rest of the game cutting the lead to one, 40-39, on a trey by Grace just under two minutes into the final half.
Over the next three minutes, the Bearcats would use a 7-2 run to raise the lead back up to nine, 50-41, when Kahla Roudebush hit a jumper with 15:15 left in the game.
The Bulls would cut the lead to as few as two points, 52-50, with 10:56 left on a Grace lay-up but could not get any closer the rest of the way.
USF would close out the final 5:36 of the game hitting just two field goals ? by ChiChi Okpaleke and by Grace with seven seconds left ? and scored just seven points during the stretch in the loss.
Grace would end the game with 27 points on 7-18 shooting from the field, and 4-8 from three-point range, and 9-10 from the line in 40 minutes. Okpaleke added 15 points and Sepulveda added 14 points on the night.
The Bulls would finish the contest hitting just 31.8 percent (21-66) of their shots and 38.1 percent (8-21) from behind the arc.
USF's free throw shooting would keep them in the contest as it finished the game hitting a season-best 81 percent (17-21) from the charity stripe after coming into the game shooting at just a 63.1 percent clip. Cincinnati, however, would make things difficult as it shot 94.7 percent (18-19) from the line and didn't miss a free throw until there were 36 seconds left in the game.
The Bulls will have this week off to prepare for No. 7/7 ? and 2008 national runner-up ? Rutgers as it visits the Sun Dome on Saturday, Feb. 16. That game will be “Women's Hoops for the Cure” night as USF helps to raise awareness of breast cancer. The game, which will tip-off at 7 p.m., will have a special $3 ticket price with proceeds going to the Florida Suncoast Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation. For ticket information, or to purchase tickets, call 1-800-GoBulls.
