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BIG EAST Championship Central

NEW YORK - USF pulled out to a 15-point lead in the first half against DePaul in the opening game of the BIG EAST Championship presented by New York Life, then held on against the pesky Blue Demons for a 58-49 win Tuesday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.

USF's fourth win in a row moved the ninth-seeded Bulls to 20-11 on the season, just the third time in 39 years of basketball USF reached the 20-win plateau.

USF will now face No. 8 seed Georgetown in the second round Wednesday at noon on ESPN. The Bulls defeated the then-No. 7 Hoyas in their only meeting this year, a 72-64 win in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 3.

Junior Dominique Jones led the way again for the Bulls with 20 points, the fourth straight game he has hit for 20 or more and the third straight he has gone for exactly 20. Jones stuffed the stat sheet with four steals, four assists and a team-high nine rebounds.

Senior Mike Mercer was the only other player in double figures for the Bulls with 14 points along with five rebounds, while senior Chris Howard added nine points, six rebounds and six assists.

DePaul's Will Walker posted 20 points for the Blue Demons, the only player to hit double figures for the team. Mac Koshwal added eight points and 10 rebounds as well.

The Bulls hit 43.3 percent overall (26-of-60) while limiting No. 16 seed DePaul (8-23) to just a 29.9 shooting percentage (20-of-67) from the floor. Neither team could hit from the free throw line as USF (6-of-14) and DePaul (3-of-8) struggled from the charity stripe.

USF scored all but one of its 26 baskets in the paint, failing to hit a 3-pointer for the first time in 183 games since March 3, 2004. USF was 0-of-8 for the game from long range, while DePaul was 6-of-25.

DePaul held a slight edge in rebounds, 45-43, while USF outscored the Blue Demons, 50-22, in the paint and 16-8 off fastbreaks.

The win was the first ever for the Bulls in the BIG EAST Championship following their first appearance in last year's tournament.

Neither team started off well, as USF opened the game 0-of-3 from the floor before hitting four of their next eight shots as the Bulls built up an 8-2 lead early on after Jones made a quick spin move to get to the hoop followed by an underneath layup by junior Jarrid Famous at the 15:23 mark.

DePaul would close the gap to 8-6, but USF would outscore the Blue Demons 22-9 the rest of the way heading into the break.

Jones and Howard combined to push the lead up to 10 after Howard found Jones all alone underneath the basket for an easy deuce, before Howard had a putback and Jones drove the court for an and-1 and free throw to make it 15-6 with 11:35 to go.

Howard found Mercer streaking down the court for a fastbreak dunk, before Jones and Howard hooked up for a 2-on-1 with Jones finishing the play for a 23-11 lead with 4:22 showing on the clock.

Jones then hit two fastbreak layups as he scored seven straight points in the game during a 9-0 run for the Bulls that ended with USF up, 30-11. An alley-oop dunk by Mercer from Howard ended the run as the Bulls built their biggest lead of the day at 19 points at the 2:39 mark.

DePaul closed out the half by scoring the last four points to close the gap to 30-15 heading into the locker room.

The Bulls limited the Blue Demons to just a 22.6 percent shooting clip in the first half while hitting 46.7 percent themselves.

Mercer knifed through the lane and hit a jumper at 17:47 of the second half as USF kept the 15-point lead at 34-19.

DePaul, though, went on a 9-0 run to get back into the game and shrink the deficit to just six at 34-28 before Howard dished to sophomore Anthony Crater who sent it back to Howard for a layup inside to make it 36-28 with 12:45 to go, ending a five-minute scoreless stretch for the Bulls.

USF continued to roll from there, getting the lead back up to double digits after Howard sent a backscreen lob to Mercer for an alley-oop dunk for the second time on the afternoon at 11:43 of the second half. Howard then moved through the lane for a lay-in that got the lead to 42-31 two possessions later.

Jones finished the 8-0 run after banking one off the glass and getting fouled with under 10 minutes to go that saw the lead go back up to 13 at 44-31.

After DePaul again got the lead back into single digits at eight, Howard drove up the court and hit Crater for a fastbreak layup with 5:07 to go. Jones grabbed a defensive rebound then brought the ball up court before dishing to Fitzpatrick for a dunk a minute and a half later that saw the lead swell to 14 at 52-38.

A three pointer by Walker with 1:31 to go got DePaul to seven at 54-47, but the Blue Demons would get no closer the rest of the way.

Walker had 16 of his 20 points in the second stanza.

Team Notes
- USF moves on to face No. 8 seed Georgetown tomorrow at noon. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.

- USF scored all but two of its floor points inside the paint, as the Bulls had 26 field goals all together for 52 points, 50 of which were inside the paint.

- With the win, USF moved to 20-11 on the season, only the third time in 39 years of USF men's basketball that the Bulls have hit the 20-win mark. USF also had 20 wins in 1989-90 and 22 in 1982-83.

- The 20 wins is key, because since 1983 when the automatic qualifier came into play for the NCAA tournament, 123 BIG EAST teams have won 20 games, and 120 of those teams went on to make the NCAA tournament. The teams that did not were West Virginia and Syracuse in 2007 and Syracuse in 2002.

- USF failed to hit a 3-pointer for the first time since March 3, 2004 against UAB, a 61-59 loss at the Sun Dome, which ended a stretch of 182 consecutive games with a least one 3-pointer.

- The win was also the fourth straight win for the Bulls.

- The win was also the first in the BIG EAST Championship for the Bulls after falling to Seton Hall last year in the first round, 68-54, in the Bulls' only other appearance at Madison Square Garden.

- The win moved USF to 4-0 against DePaul in the last two seasons. The Blue Demons still lead the all-time series, 8-15. USF's wins have come in stretches of four with the current four-game streak along with four wins in a row in the series from 2000-03.

- USF has now won 11 more games than last year, marking one of the biggest turnarounds in the country. Heading into this week, USF was one of nine teams in the nation to post 10 or more wins this season than the 2008-09 campaign.

- For the second straight game and only the second time this season, USF's opponent had just one player score in double figures, as DePaul's Will Walker led the way with 20 points. Kemba Walker scored 18 for UConn in the last game of the season for the Bulls, the only Husky player to reach double figures.

- DePaul hit just 29.9 percent for the day (20-of-67), the first time USF held an opponent to under 30 percent shooting since Nov. 29, 2008 against Northeastern (24.1 percent). The last BIG EAST team USF faced to shoot under 30 percent was Rutgers (27.6) on Jan. 24, 2007.

- Every USF player had at least three rebounds, while USF also had nine blocks, including three from Augustus Gilchrist and Toarlyn Fitzpatrick. USF last had eight or more blocks in a game on Nov. 27, 2009 against FAU, when the Bulls also had eight that game.

Individual Notes
- Dominique Jones finished the day 4-of-7 from the free throw line to become USF's all-time single-season leader in free throws made. He came into the game with 188, and then surpassed Charlie Bradley's record of 189 set in 1982-83 when he hit a free throw at 4:21 of the first half when he got fouled making a fastbreak layup.

- Jones also moved into second all time for the most points scored in a season with 660, surpassing Bradley's 652 points set in 1984-85. Bradley owns the all-time mark with 901 in 1982-83.

- Jones continued his climb up the charts with four steals on the day, which moved him from ninth to seventh on the career steals list. Jones now has 140 and trails Radenko Dobras, who had 152 during his career.

- Jones' 20 points marked the 40th career game he has gone for 20 or more, including his last four straight. He has scored exactly 20 points in each of his last three games. He finished the year first in scoring in BIG EAST games only at 23.2 points per contest.

- Chris Howard posted six assists on the day, taking over fourth place on USF's all-time assist list with 481, passing former Director of Basketball Operations Tommy Tonelli. Chucky Atkins, with 519, would be next up for Howard.