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Postgame Notes
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Despite a season-high 30 points from junior Dominique Jones, the University of South Florida men's basketball team was defeated by No. 7 Syracuse, 82-65, Sunday afternoon in the Carrier Dome.
Jones and senior Mike Mercer combined to score 43 of USF's points with 30 and 13 respectively. Junior Jarrid Famous was just one point from recording his fifth double-double of the year, scoring nine points and grabbing 12 rebounds.
The contest also marked the first action of the 2009-10 season for both sophomore Anthony Crater and senior Alex Rivas. Crater posted two assists but was 0-of-6 from the floor in 25 minutes, while Rivas saw one basket in four minutes of action.
USF (10-5, 0-3 BIG EAST) shot 40 percent from the floor, but was just 3-of-18 (16.7 percent) from 3-point range. The Orange (15-1, 2-1) hit 50.8 percent of their shots and only 29.4 percent from beyond the arc (5-of-17).
Syracuse also held the advantage in points in the paint (50-34), points off turnovers (17-9) and bench points (18-4).
Jones got things started by hitting a three at the 19:02 mark, and a layup by Famous at 16:18 made it 5-4 USF, the last time the Bulls would hold the lead the rest of the game.
A 3-point play by Howard with 12:26 left in the first half saw USF trim the lead to one at 14-13, the third time in the last two and a half minutes USF was able to get to within one.
After Famous hit a layup with 9:09 left to make it 19-17 Syracuse, the Orange would go on a 16-4 run that got the lead up to 14, 35-21.
Syracuse maintained the led and went into halftime up, 40-28.
After scoring just six in the first half, Jones turned it around in a hurry in the second half, scoring USF's first 14 points of the second stanza. He combined with Mercer to score 33 of USF's 37 second-half points.
The Bulls were unable to get the deficit to single digits, as Syracuse slowly pushed the lead to 21 at the 13:47 mark.
After USF held the Orange from making a bucket for nearly five minutes, Andy Rautins hit a three at 5:48 to get the crowd back into the game.
The Orange, up 71-56 at that point, eventually cruised to the 82-65 win.
USF next plays West Virginia on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Sun Dome, then hosts Rutgers on Jan. 16, also at 7 p.m. Catch the USF-WVU game on Bright House Sports Network and the USF-Rutgers game on ESPN360.
Team Notes
- The Bulls faced their first of two nationally ranked teams this week in No. 7 Syracuse. USF will take on No. 8 West Virginia
Wednesday.
- Syracuse has been in the national polls every week this season, topping out at No. 5 for three straight weeks (Dec. 14-28). The Orange are coming off a 74-57 victory over Memphis on Jan. 6, but were upset by Pittsburgh on Jan. 2, 82-72, the first loss of the season for Syracuse.
- USF is 1-7 against Syracuse, with the only victory being an 89-78 win over the Orange on Feb. 13, 2008.
- Stan Heath is 1-3 against Syracuse.
- Head coach Stan Heath is in his 23rd season of coaching, ninth as a head coach and third at USF. He has posted a 143-123 overall record and is 31-46 at USF. Heath has made three NCAA appearances (2002-Kent State, 2006 and 2007- Arkansas) in his eight-year career.
- The Bulls are 0-5 at the Carrier Dome all-time.
- USF is 2-34 in BIG EAST road games. The Bulls' last road BIG EAST win was Jan. 10, 2009 at DePaul, an 80-58 victory. Dominique Jones led the Bulls with 22 points. The other was at Rutgers on March 1, 2008.
- USF is also 9-81 against ranked teams overall and 3-19 since joining the BIG EAST Conference.
- USF was outrebounding the Orange 35.9 to 35.7 boards per game heading into the contest and held the slight advantage, 38-36, Sunday. USF also only committed 13.7 turnovers per game while Syracuse committed 16.0 per outing, but USF had 16 turnovers while the Orange only had 11.
- Syracuse is averaging 85.7 points per game while USF is scoring 68.1 points each night, as both teams were held to just about three points under their season average.
Individual Notes
- Senior forward Alex Rivas earned his first minutes of the season and scored his first bucket with 5:54 left in the first half. He ended the game with two points and no rebounds. Rivas spent the first half of the season recovering from bilateral tibial surgical revision that replaced the metal rods in his legs.
- Sophomore guard Anthony Crater made his USF debut after sitting out due to NCAA transfer rules. Crater, who adds tremendous speed at the point guard position, had two assists but was held scoreless in 25 minutes of action. He attempted six shots.
- Junior Dominique Jones cracked the top 5 in free throws made, as his 13-of-17 performance against the Orange gives him 311 for his career, moving him past Tony Grier, who had 309 during his career. Up next is Chucky Atkins with 323.
- Jones moved into eighth on USF's career free throws attempted list with 17 attempts at Syracuse. Jones, who started the afternoon in 10th with 411, surpassed Gary Alexander and Jesse Salters, who each had 418 in their careers at USF.
- Jones also moved into ninth in field goals made by hitting seven on the day for 464 career field goals, one more than now current No. 10 Willie Redden, while Jones now stands seventh in field goas attempted with 1,041, moving past Cedric Smith, who had 1,040.
- After scoring just six points in the first half, Jones tallied 14 straight to start the second half. He ended the day with 30 points, the eighth time Jones has scored at least 30 points in a game. The 30 points also set his season high.
- In four career games against Syracuse, Jones has gone for 17, 23, 29 and now 30 points.
- Junior Jarrid Famous came up just one point shy of recording his team-high fifth double-double of the year with nine points and 12 rebounds.
