Game Stats PDF | Season Stats PDF | BIG EAST Stats PDF
Postgame Notes | Postgame Quotes

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The way junior Dominique Jones and the University of South Florida men's basketball team are playing in the second half these days, no lead is safe for the opposition.

The Bulls caught fire against No. 7 Georgetown, outscoring the Hoyas by 17 in the second half as the Bulls pulled out a 72-64 win Wednesday night at the Verizon Center.

The win marked USF's fourth BIG EAST victory in a row and the second straight over a ranked team following a 70-61 win over No. 17 Pitt Sunday. USF also defeated its highest-ranked opponent ever, following a win over No. 8 Marquette last season at the Sun Dome.

USF moved to 15-7 on the year and 5-5 in the BIG EAST, while Georgetown dropped to 16-5 overall and 6-4 in conference play.

Jones added 22 points in the second half as USF shot a blistering 65.2 percent (15-of-23) in the second stanza to erase a nine-point halftime deficit. The Bulls outscored Georgetown, 46-29, in the second stanza after being down, 35-26, at the half.

Jones finished with 29 points all together and is now averaging 29.4 points per game over his last nine contests. Jones also led the team with eight rebounds and stuffed the stat sheet with four assists and three steals.

Senior Mike Mercer was the only other player in double figures for the Bulls with 12 points and six rebounds, while senior Chris Howard handed out six assists with eight points.

USF shot 49 percent overall after hitting just 35.7 in the first half. The Hoyas, who made 48 percent of their shots overall, were 15-of-25 in the first half (60 percent), but were held to just 9-of-25 shooting (36 percent) in the second half.

Greg Monroe and Austin Freeman each posted 21 points to lead the Hoyas, while Monroe also had eight boards.

After the Bulls scored the first points of the evening on a layup by junior Jarrid Famous, the teams went back and forth early on. A putback dunk by Famous at the 13:29 mark gave USF a 10-9 lead, but an 11-2 run by Georgetown quickly swung momentum the other way.

Georgetown, up 20-12 more than 10 minutes into play, held Jones scoreless until the two-time reigning BIG EAST Player of the Week sank a pair of free throws with under nine minutes to play. 

Jones added a layup with 7:46 left on the clock to cut the Hoya lead to three at 22-19, but a 13-3 run over the next five and a half minutes gave Georgetown its largest lead of the game, 35-22, with two minutes to go in the half.

The Bulls scored the last four points of the half to go into the break down, 35-26.

Georgetown got the lead back into double digits to start the second half, holding on to a 39-28 lead after a layup by Chris Wright at 18:34.

Georgetown's hot hands from the first half all of a sudden turned cold from that point forward, as USF outscored the Hoyas, 24-5, over the next 10 and a half minutes that saw the Bulls go from down 11 to up by eight.

Jones helped to spark the offensive explosion, including a fastbreak dunk off a steal to pull the Bulls to four at 41-37 with 14:20 to go.

Mercer got fouled on the way to the basket and proceeded to sink both shots from the charity stripe to tie the game up, 42-42. Jones banked in a 3-pointer at 10:36 to put USF in the lead for good at 46-44. Mercer followed that up with an alley-oop dunk from Howard to put the Bulls up by four.

Howard's jumper at the 6:29 mark of the second half got USF's lead to eight at 56-48, but Georgetown would respond by scoring the next six points of the game to get within two, 56-54. A 7-1 run by USF a short time later put USF back into that eight-point lead again, and with 1:19 left on the clock, Georgetown was unable to mount a comeback, as the Bulls made six straight free throws to end the game to ice the victory.

The Bulls continue their three-game road swing against Notre Dame Sunday at noon followed by a road contest at Marquette Feb. 13.
 
USF at Georgetown
Postgame Notes
Feb. 3, 2010
Verizon Center   

Team Notes
- With the win, USF won its fifth BIG EAST game of the season, the most ever for the Bulls in their five seasons in the league.
- USF defeated a ranked team for the second-straight game following a 70-61 win over No. 17 Pitt Sunday. The win was the 11th all-time against a ranked opponent.
- The Bulls also secured a win against the highest-ranked opponent ever. Prior to tonight, the previous best was a 57-56 win over No. 8 Marquette Feb. 6, 2009.
- It also marked the third time ever USF won two straight games against ranked opponents, but the first time those two wins occurred in back-to-back games.
- The last time USF had two wins over ranked opponents in the same season was the 2004-05 season, when the Bulls earned wins over No. 18 Charlotte and No. 21 Cincinnati over a three-game stretch in March 2005.
- The win was USF's first over a ranked BIG EAST team on the road. The last time the Bulls beat a ranked team in a true road game occurred Feb. 24, 1992, against No. 15 Tulane, an 81-76 victory.
- The Bulls haven't won four conference games in a row since the 1991-92 season, when the Bulls won six straight Metro Conference games late in the year, the last season USF was in the NCAA tournament.
- USF scored just 26 points in the first half, a season low after scoring 27 in the first half against Seton Hall Jan. 28.
- For the seventh game in a row, USF had fewer or equal number of turnovers as the opponent, as the Bulls committed just eight on the night. USF has been in single digits in turnovers in four straight games and five of the last six. USF is averaging just 7.8 turnovers in the last six games.
- USF outscored the Hoyas, 42-30, in the paint, and held a 15-6 advantage in points off turnovers.
- USF's bench outscored Georgetown's, 10-2, the first time since Nov. 27 USF had more bench points than its opponent, when USF held a 10-5 advantage in the category against FAU.

Individual Notes
- Junior Dominique Jones posted his ninth straight game with 20 or more points, and the 35th time in his career, as he has averaged 29.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.8 assists during that span while shooting 50.9 percent from the floor and 78.2 percent from the free throw line.
- Jones' 12-of-17 performance from the free throw line marked the fourth-straight game he has made 10 or more free throws, hitting 79.3 percent (50-of-63) during that time.
- Jones moved into sixth all-time in field goals, surpassing Chucky Atkins, who had 526 in his career. Jones, now with 530, trails No. 5 Tony Grier, who had 583 during his time at USF.
- Jones now has 1,585 points in his career, as he trails No. 5 Atkins, who had 1,619.
- Jones currently ranks third in the BIG EAST in scoring at 22.4 points per game, but first in conference games at 27.0 per contest.
- Jones is averaging 21.5 points in the second half over the last four games.
- Jones has also posted 35.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists and is shooting 55.3 percent from the floor and 79.4 percent from the foul line during the Bulls' four-game win streak.
- Senior Alex Rivas set season highs with four points and three rebounds in 11 minutes of play as he continues to recover from offseason leg surgery.