MILWAUKEE, Wis. -- With the University of South Florida women's basketball team coming off one of it's biggest and certainly most exciting wins of the season last Saturday against Pittsburgh, it needed to find a way to keep that momentum going as it entered tonight's regular season finale at Marquette.
USF came into the contest in a must-win situation if it wanted to sneak its way into the BIG EAST Conference Tournament which would be held in Hartford, March 8-11, however also needed a loss by Villanova at Louisville in order to take part in the postseason event. The “Green and Gold” found out before their game that the Wildcats took care of their end of the bargain losing at Louisville 84-52, so the ball was ? as they say ? in their court.
Well, the Bulls (15-14, 5-11 BIG EAST) took advantage of the opportunity that was given to them defeating Marquette 61-56 and advancing to their third straight BIG EAST Conference Tournament. To make matters even more interesting, despite USF's slide since the first of the year, and through a quandary of tie-breakers and “who-beat-who”, the Bulls not only makes the tournament but has bypassed the No. 12 seed. They will be the No. 11 seed and will face Syracuse on March 8 in the first day nightcap at 8 p.m.
USF jumped out of the gate quickly taking advantage of its 42.9 percent from the floor shooting during the first 8:40 of the first half, but also benefitted from the Golden Eagles bad start from the field (14.3 percent), en route to a 16-6 lead with 11:20 on the clock.
The Bulls would keep some distance between themselves and Marquette leading by as many as 11 points, 24-13, when Shantia Grace hit a jumper for two of her 17 first half points with 5:37 left in the first stanza.
The Golden Eagles (16-13, 8-8 BIG EAST) would cut into USF's lead getting as close as four, 27-23, with 48 seconds left before the intermission. Grace, however, would get to the line on two straight possessions down the floor and would go 4-4 from the charity stripe in the last 34 seconds to give the Bulls a 31-23 lead at the half.
The two teams would come out in the second half and play nearly the entire 20 minutes virtually even.
Marquette would use 88.2 percent (15-17) free throw shooting in the second half, including hitting 12 straight from the charity stripe, to cut the lead to one-point, for the first time, 52-51, with 4:19 left on two free throws by Jocelyn Mellen.
The Golden Eagles would get the lead back to one-point two other times in the final 3:48 but could never tie the ball game or take the lead.
Jazmine Sepulveda would put back a missed Grace jumper and get fouled with 28 seconds remaining, and then proceed to hit the free throw, and then Jessica Lawson would hit two free throws with 13 seconds left to secure the win.
Grace would finish with a game-high 28 points and Sepulveda had 15 points and tied her career high with 10 rebounds.
The loss for Marquette at home was just its third of the season at the Al McGuire Center.
