| |
|
|
 |
| |
|
2 |
|
|
|
Middle Tennessee
|
28 |
43 |
- |
71 |
| USF |
25 |
34 |
- |
59 |
| Scoring Leaders |
| Player |
FG-A
|
3FG-A
|
FT-A
|
TP
|
| MTSU- Ebony Rowe |
9-11 |
0-0 |
7-14 |
25 |
| USF - Andrea Smith |
7-19 |
1-5 |
3-5 |
18 |
| Rebounding Leaders |
| Player |
|
|
|
| MTSU - Rowe |
9 |
7 |
16 |
| USF - Carn |
4 |
3 |
7 |
|
|
|
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The University of South Florida women's basketball team dropped its first game of the season this afternoon with a tough 71-59 setback to Middle Tennessee State in front of 2,932 at the Murphy Center.
Andrea Smith scored a team-high 18 points, including 14 in the second half, while twin sister Andrell added 10 points in the loss.
The Bulls came out fast to start the game scoring the first seven points of the contest and forcing the Blue Raiders into seven turnovers in the first 16:30.
Middle Tennessee would get its first basket of the game, a basket that would spark an 8-0 run and give the Blue Raiders an 8-7 lead on a Tina Stewart lay-up with 12:46 left in the half.
Leonrda Doomes-Stephens would not let Middle Tennessee keep that lead for long as she would connect on a 15-foot jumper on the next series down court.
The Bulls would push that edge to as many as seven points when Andrea Smith scored on a driving jumper with 5:13 left in the first stanza, making the score 24-17.
USF, however, would go cold the rest of the first half scoring only one point - when Doomes-Stephens hit the second of a two-shot free throw situation - to put the Bulls up 25-20.
Middle Tennessee would tie the game at 25-all on a Dymon Raynor jumper with 1:16 left, and then take the lead when Tina Stewart hit a free throw with 18 seconds left before the intermission.
Ebony Rowe then hit a lay-up with four seconds left in the half to give MTSU its biggest lead of the game, 28-25, entering the break.
It was a sloppy first half as both teams combined for 34 turnovers.
Middle Tennessee came out in the second half just as hot as it ended the first half.
The Blue Raiders reversed the tables scoring the first five points of the second stanza to take an eight point lead, 33-25 with 17:25 left, before the Bulls got a jumper from Andrea Smith - their first field goal of the half - with 17:13 remaining.
The Blue Raiders would push its lead to 10 points, 37-27, before USF would finally get going.
The Bulls stepped up their game on the defensive end which would pay dividends offensively. USF would string together an 11-2 run after the Bulls forced MTSU into five turnovers from the 15:49 mark to the 13:13 mark of the second half. Andrea Smith would cap the run with an 18-footer giving USF a 40-39 lead.
From that point on neither team would take more than a two-point lead until the Blue Raiders used a 9-2 run to break the game open for good, going up 10, 56-46, with 4:59 left on the second of two made free throws by Anne Marie Lanning.
On the afternoon, the Bulls would shoot just 37.3 percent (22-59) from the field while MTSU hit 41.2 percent (21-51) of their shots.
Daleisha Carn would finish the game with eight points and a team-high seven rebounds, while Jasmine Wynne also chipped in with eight points.
The game would continue to be sloppy as USF forced the Blue Raiders into 30 turnovers on the day, while the Bulls committed 23 miscues in the loss.
USF returns home to start a three-game home stand on Wednesday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. against another in-state foe, Stetson.
