Game Information
Date: Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Tipoff: 8 p.m. (EST)/7 p.m. (CST)
Location: Chicago, IL
Arena: McGrath Arena
Capacity: 3,000
Series: DePaul leads series 10-5
at USF: DePaul leads series 5-3
at DePaul: DePaul leads series 5-1
Neutral site: USF leads series 1-0
Radio: 1010 WQYK-AM
Internet: GoUSFBulls.com (BullsVision)
Play-by-Play: Garrett Walvoord
Tickets: Call the DePaul ticket office at 773-325-7526

Game Notes | USF | DePaul | Updated Weekly BIG EAST Notes

The University of South Florida women's basketball team will look to get back on the winning track as it closes out it's two-game road trip on Tuesday night at DePaul ... Tip-off at McGrath Arena is scheduled for 8 p.m. (EST)/7 p.m. (CST) ... Fans can hear the game live on 1010 AM CBS Sports Radio with Garrett Walvoord calling all the action ... In addition, fans can follow the action via the world wide web by logging onto GoUSFBulls.com and selecting the BullsVision Premium option for live audio streaming ... Tuesday will mark the first of two games that the Bulls will play on the road in their final three regular season outings ... Following the DePaul game USF will return to the Sun Dome  on Feb. 28 where it will close out the home portion of its regular season schedule against Cincinnati at 2 p.m. ... The Bulls will then travel to the “City of Brotherly Love - Philadelphia” where they will face Villanova on March 2 at 7 p.m. in both schools' regular season finale ... USF looks to right the ship after dropping three of its last five games and its last two straight ... The Bulls are coming off a tough loss in the first game if this current road trip when they dropped a 90-75 decision to West Virginia on Saturday night in Morgantown ... Prior to its current two-game skid, USF has only lost back-to-back games two other times this season against Marquette (68-60) on Jan. 3 and No. 1/1 Connecticut (83-37) on Jan. 6, and against No. 7/11 Louisville (76-60) on Jan. 14 and Pittsburgh (79-47) on Jan. 17 ... Jessica Lawson had a big game against the Mountaineers on Saturday with a 22-point, 12-rebound outing ... Her double-double was the fourth of the season, the eighth while playing at USF and the ninth of her collegiate career (including California) ... She also recorded a career-high seven blocked shots in the win in 29 minutes ... Shantia Grace and Jazmine Sepulveda also added double figures with a 17 and 10 points respectively ... On the year, Grace continues to lead the Bulls in the scoring column averaging 14.7 points per game while Janae Stokes is netting 12.9 points per game and n Sepulveda is averaging 12.1 points per outing ... Lawson is averaging double figures in the scoring g column for the first time this season averaging 10.2 points per contest ... Porche Grant is the team leader on the glass averaging 8.3 rebounds per game and Brittany Denson is second grabbing 6.9 boards per outing.  

Scouting DePaul
DePaul comes into Tuesday's game with a 20-7 record and an 8-5 record in the BIG EAST ... The Blue Demons have been extremely consistent this season only putting together back-to-back losses once to No. 10/13 Louisville (78-60) on Jan. 3 and No. 12/6 Notre Dame (86-62) on Jan. 6 ... Prior to that two-game stretch DePaul was 12-2 and is 8-3 since.

The Blue Demons are coming off an 87-79 win at Syracuse on Feb. 17 ... DePaul put four players in double figures led by Deidre Naughton and San Quigley who netted 25 and 23 points respectively ... Felicia Chester added 12 points and Keisha Hampton had 11 points in the win ... Natasha Williams grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds for the Blue Demons.

Naughton leads the team in scoring this season netting 15.8 points per game while Williams rounds out the double-figure scorers averaging 14.4 points ... Williams is also the team leader on the glass pulling in 6.8 rebounds per game.

The Series vs. The Blue Demons
Tuesday will mark the 16th meeting all-time between USF and DePaul with the Blue Demons leading the series 10-5 ... The Bulls, however, hold a slight 2-1 lead in the series since both schools joined the BIG EAST Conference.

After winning their inaugural BIG EAST match-up for both schools against DePaul, 79-77 (ot) on Dec. 7, 2005, the Bulls dropped a 72-65 decision in the Windy City on Feb. 6, 2007 ... USf won it's second game in the past three outings last season with a 78-73 victory on Feb. 5, 2008 in the Sun Dome ... Despite the Blue Demons leading the all-time series 10-5 the two teams have always played close games ... In the last seven outings between the two schools, the averaged margin of victory has been 6.1 points.

Last Year vs. DePaul
USF ended a three-game losing streak - and a four-game home losing streak - with a 78-73 win over No. 25/25 DePaul on Feb. 5, 2008 in the Sun Dome ... It was by far the Bulls biggest win of the season and first victory over a Top 25 team since defeating No. 15/15 Louisville 74-58 on Jan. 16, 2007 in Tampa.

Shantia Grace's 35-point effort equaled the sixth-best in school history and was the best since Jessica Dickson poured in 35 against the Blue Demons on Dec. 7, 2007.

Shantia Grace and Jazmine Sepulveda combined for 57 of USF's 78 total points while Melissa Dalembert and Porche Grant teamed up for 21 of the Bulls' 39 boards on the night.

USF hit 10 three-pointers on the night marking the fourth time during the season that it accomplished the feat ... Prior to the 2007-08 season the Bulls had recorded multiple games of double-digit three-pointers made in just one season, the 2002-03 campaign when they did it twice.

Last Time Out For The Bulls
USF had its three-game BIG EAST road winning streak snapped on Saturday with a tough 90-75 loss at West Virginia ... It was the Bulls' first loss on the road since Jan. 17 when they dropped a 79-47 decision at Pittsburgh.

USF shot 42.2 percent (27-64) from the field, out-doing WVU's 39.2 percent (29-74) from the floor ... The Bulls, however shot a dismal 27.3 percent (6-22) from behind the three-point arc while the Mountaineers were 42.9 percent (9-21 ... In addition, West Virginia, forced USF into 14 turnovers and scored 17 points off the miscues. 

The Bulls made their presence felt defensively, despite giving up 90 points, recording a school record - and WVU Coliseum record for opponents - 17 blocked shots ... That total also tied a B IG EAST Conference single-game record.

Jessica Lawson had a big game against the Mountaineers with a 22-point, 12-rebound performance ... Her double-double was the fourth of the season, the eighth while playing at USF and the ninth of her collegiate career (including California) ... She also recorded a career-high seven blocked shots in the win in 29 minutes ... Shantia Grace and Jazmine Sepulveda also added double figures with a 17 and 10 points respectively.

USF Still One Of The Nation's Top Offenses
Although they are not on the scoring pace that they were earlier this season, the Bulls are still among the nations leaders in scoring offense ... USF comes into Tuesday's game with DePaul as the nation's third ranked team in the country in scoring netting 80.2 points per game on the year ... They find themselves behind UConn (85.7 ppg) and North Carolina (83.8 ppg).

USF has scored 100 or more points in five games this season, 90 or more in nine outings and 80 or more in 15 of 24 games this year while holding its opposition to less then 60 points eight times and fewer that 50 points six times.

Sharing The Wealth
Coming into the DePaul game, the Bulls have had six players record at least one game this year with 20 or more points ... In addition, three players have logged at least three outings with no fewer than 25 points ... Janae Stokes leads the team with six 20-point games on the year while Jazmine Sepulveda is second with four.

Treymendous
The Bulls set a new school record for three-point shots made in a game with 15 against Jackson State on Dec. 28 ... USF passed the old mark of 14, originally set vs. Jacksonville on Dec. 30, 2001, and then tied the old record record this season against Grambling on Dec. 18 ... The Bulls have hit double-digit three point shots five times this season.

USF hit 12 three-pointers (12-27) against Providence on Jan. 20 ... The 12 trey's is the third most made this season and the fifth most all-time.

Jose Fernandez Becomes USF Basketball's Career Leader In Wins
USF head coach Jose Fernandez is already the all-time winningest coach in the program's history, now he has made his mark as the all-time winningest coach in USF basketball history ... On Dec. 28, with the Bulls' win over Jackson State, Fernandez surpassed former men's coach Bobby Paschal with 128 career wins ... Paschal logged 127 wins in 10 seasons (286 games) ... Fernandez is currently 134-132.

USF is now one of six Big East schools where the winningest basketball coach is a women's basketball coach ... It joins Connecticut (Geno Auriemma), Notre Dame (Muffet McGraw), Rutgers (Theresa Grentz), Seton Hall (Phyllis Mangina) and Villanova (Harry Perretta).

Putting Up A 30-Spot
Fortunately this is on the forcing end and not the committing end, but coming into the West Virginia game, USF has forced it's opponents into 30 or more turnovers in seven of it's 25 games this year.

In their two games of the USF Shootout, the Bulls forced Central Connecticut and Loyola into 33 and 35 turnovers respectively after not accomplishing back-to-back miscues during the 2007-08 season ... In addition, Coppin State had 31 turnovers on Nov. 2.

USF forced North Florida into 39 miscues on Dec. 14 ... That came just one-game after the Bulls forced FIU into 34 turnovers on Dec. 5.

On Dec, 20, Northern Arizona handed the ball over 35 times - which equals the second most this season ... Southern had 31 turnovers on Dec. 21.

Prior to this season, the last time an opponent of USF recorded 30 or more turnovers was on Nov. 18, 2006 when Texas Southern handed the ball over 39 times in an 89-37 loss to the Bulls ... In that game USF scored 50 of it's 89 points off turnovers.

The last time that the Bulls recorded better than 30 turnovers twice in a season was during the 2003-04 campaign when Wagner had 32 in the season opener on Nov. 21 and Florida Atlantic had 35 on Dec. 30, 2003 ... USF has never had three opponents turn the ball over 30 or more times in one season.

Give Me That
In addition to the seven 30 turnover games this season by USF opponents, the Bulls also recorded four games with 20 or more steals ... The Bulls had 23 against Central Connecticut, 20 against Loyola (MD), 23 against Coppin State and 20 against North Florida ... Last season the Bulls didn't log more that 17 steals in any one game, and only had double-digit steals in eight games.

Prior to this year, the last time the Bulls had 20 steals in a game was against Texas Southern on Nov. 18, 2006 when they had exactly 20.

USF Establishes Another Stellar Win Total
Although the Bulls' play has been up and down at times this season, it has still posted one of the top win totals in school history with at least four games to go (three regular season and one BIG EAST Tournament game) ... USF's current 18 wins is the fourth most in school history surpassing the 2007-08 (16-15) and 1977-78 (16-10) team's.

Bulls Post Another Impressive Home Record
USF has posted another solid win total at home so far this season ... Through 17 games this season in the Sun Dome the Bulls have recorded a 12-5 record ... Those 12 victories are tied for the third most in school history joining the 2005-06 and 1993-94 team's.

Double Dipping'
Melissa Dalembert recorded the Bulls' first double-double of the season, against Loyola (MD) on Nov. 16, in the championship game of the USF Shootout with a 13-point, 12-rebound performance ... In addition, it was Dalembert's second career double-double following her 19-point, 12-rebound effort against New Hampshire on Nov. 17, 2007.

It took 11 games before another member of the Bulls recorded a double-double ... Jessica Lawson made the list with a 16-point, 10-rebound effort vs. Jackson State on Dec. 28 ... Lawson then logged the Bulls' third double-double of the season with a 14-point, 16-rebound effort against Louisville on Jan. 14 ... Her 16 rebounds marks a career-high ... Lawson logged her second double-double in three games with a 12-point, 12-rebound game at Providence on Jan. 20 ... Most recently Lawson recorded her fourth double-double of the season with 22 points and 12 rebounds ... Lawson has recorded eight double-doubles during her time at USF and nine during her collegiate career (including her time at California). 

Porche Grant turned in USF's fourth double-double of the season with an 11-point, 11-rebound effort against Pittsburgh on Jan. 17 ... It was her first of the season and the third of her career.

Grant produced her fourth career double-double, and the second of season, with a 14-point, 12-rebound outing against No. 24/24 Notre Dame on Feb. 17 ... Her 14 points marked a career-high.

After coming close several other times Brittany Denson finally recorded her first double-double of the year ... She tallied 10 points and 11 rebounds on Jan. 20 at Providence ... It was her third double-double at USF and the ninth of her collegiate career.

Although USF has obviously had numerous double-doubles in it's programs history, it has only had one triple-double in it's 37 years of competition ... Monica Encheverria accomplished the feat on Dec. 3, 1999 against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo when she recorded 13 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists ... In addition to Encheverria, the USF men's program has had two triple-doubles in its history with McHugh Mattis doing it at Winston Salem State on Dec. 7, 2006 (22 points, 10 rebounds, 10 blocked shots) and Adrian Hillman recording the first-ever in school history against Florida Atlantic on Dec. 4, 1996 (13 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists).

Bulls Have Streaks Snapped In Back-To-Back Games
USF had it's nine-game winning streak snapped, which was tied for the second longest in school history, with its 68-60 loss to Marquette on Jan. 3 in Milwaukee ... The Bulls also won nine consecutive during the 1972-73 campaign ... The program's record for consecutive wins is 10, winning the last two games of the 1975-76 season and the first eight of the 1976-77 campaign.

Like in the previous outing against Marquette, the Bulls had a long winning streak snapped with their loss to Connecticut on Jan. 6 ... USF came into the game with a record 12-game home winning streak dating back to last season, however, that stretch was snapped with the 83-37 setback to the Huskies ... The Bulls surpassed the old mark of nine-consecutive with their 82-43 win over Northern Arizona on Dec. 20 ... USF held the old nine-game mark three separate times winning the last three games of 2004-05 and the first six games of 2005-06, during the 2004-05 campaign, and taking the last seven games of the 1976-76 campaign and the first two of 1977-78. 

Working Overtime
USF's 81-71 overtime win vs. St. John's on Jan. 10 improves the Bulls' all-time record in extra session games to 17-10 and 2-0 this season ... Prior to the win over the Red Storm, USF's last overtime game came earlier this year - on Nov. 28, 2008 - when it defeated Iowa, in the second game of the Paradise Jam in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, 82-79.

In addition, USF is 10-3 in overtime games under Jose Fernandez and it has won its last seven extra session games. 

USF Impressive When Leading At The Break
In their 26 games of the 2008-09 season, the Bulls are 15-1 when leading at the half ... Their two wins when behind at the break came with an 80-66 triumph at Tulane on Dec. 30. 2008 and a 81-71 overtime victory over St. John's on Jan. 10 ... In those games, USF trailed  36-33 after the first 20 minutes against the Green Wave and 42-37 at the break against the Red Storm before going on to the win.

USF defeated Syracuse after being tied with the Orange at the break (38-38) ... It was the first, and only, time this season that the Bulls were tied at the intermission.

The Bulls dropped their first game of the season, when leading at the intermission, on Feb. 17 when No. 24/24 Notre Dame handed them an 86-79 loss ... After the first 20 minutes of action USF led 52-44.