By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer
LAKELAND - USF made sure to avoid the scare that Miami got from Division II Florida Southern College.
Augustus Gilchrist led three Bulls in double figures while they put away the Mocs early in a 73-43 victory before an announced crowd of 1,987 at The Lakeland Center on Wednesday night.
"Our guys really came to play tonight and we needed to. We didn't want to take anybody lightly and we had respect for Florida Southern," said head coach Stan Heath, whose Bulls rolled to 3-0 to start the season for the first time since 2009-10.
FSC had USF's full attention following the Mocs' 88-78 loss to Miami on Nov. 3. FSC had a 10-point lead with 9:50 remaining before the Hurricanes got it together.
"Everybody's antennas went up after that," Heath said.
The much bigger Bulls did what they were supposed to quickly in the first half while holding the Mocs to 18 percent from the floor on the way to a 33-16 lead at the break.
"I did think our length bothered them," Heath said of the Mocs, who were forced to make quick shots to avoid blocks.
USF wound up blocking 12 shots, the third-most in program history, while forcing FSC to go 1-for-20 from 3-point range.
"I think we did a better job with shot fakes," Heath said.
Offense certainly wasn't a problem either, especially in the second half when the Bulls shot 50 percent from the field. Reserve point guard Blake Nash stepped up with 13 points in a game where he said he was trying to build a higher comfort level.
"Nash is giving us a really good offensive punch," said Heath after Nash went 5-for-8 from the field.
Reserve forward Toarlyn Fitzpatrick posted 12 points and eight rebounds, while Gilchrist fell one rebound short of his second straight double-double.
"I think we have a very strong front line," Heath said. "It was good to see Fitzpatrick kind of coming along."
Wednesday marked USF's third different venue in three games and Gilchrist said it has readied the Bulls for their upcoming road trip. USF faces Old Dominion on Saturday and gets the Kentucky-Penn State winner on Sunday at the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame Tournament in Uncasville, Conn.
"It's just getting us prepared for the tournament this weekend, the neutral sites and building some character for when we go on the road," Gilchrist said.
