NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - With the BIG EAST Conference Tournament right around the corner, the University of South Florida women's basketball team looked to gain some momentum heading into the event in Hartford (March 4-8) when it faced Rutgers on Wednesday night at the Louis Brown Athletic Center.
 
USF looked like it had the hands up on that momentum, however, couldn't seem to close the deal as the Scarlet Knights overcame a 17-point second half deficit and handed the Bulls a 52-46 loss in front of 2,221 Rutgers faithful.

Andrea Smith led the way for the Bulls (10-18, 1-13 BIG EAST) with a game-high 20 points while Leondra Doomes-Stephens and Andrell Smith chipped in with seven points apiece in the loss. Porche Grant grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds on the night.

The Scarlet Knights (16-11, 9-5 BIG EAST) came out of the locker room fast to start the game scoring the first five points of the contest on a three by Erica Wheeler and then a layup by Khadijah Rushdan.

The Bulls would then score the next 10 points of the game to take a 10-5 edge on a three pointer by Andrell Smith with 16:35 on the clock.

After Rutgers came back to cut the lead to one-point on a free throw by Chelsey Lee with 10:24 left in the half, USF would keep its composure and tale the edge back and push it to as many as nine points three times in the final five minutes of the half, the latter coming on a Andrea Smith lay-up with 2:01 left in the first stanza giving the Bulls a 28-19 lead at the break.

The Bulls came out in the second half as hot as they did going into the intermission.

USF scored the first eight points of the second half - starting off with back-to-back three's by Andrea Smith - to take what would be the biggest of the lead of the game to that point, 36-19, with 17:11 left on a breakaway steal and lay-up by Andrell Smith.

After two Doomes-Stephens free throws made the score, 38-23 with 15:46 remaining in the game, Rutgers would get back into the contest using a 14-0 run to cut the Bulls' lead to one, 38-37 with 7:39 left, and then tied the game at 39-all, on two free throws by Khadijah Rushdan with 7:22 left.

The Scarlet Knights would then take its first lead, since leading 5-0 less than a minute into the contest, when Chelsey Lee hit two free throws giving Rutgers a 43-42 advantage with 3:28 left.

The Scarlet Knights would not look back allowing the Bulls to get no closer than three points in the final three minutes of action.
 
The Bulls now travel south on the New Jersey Turnpike to Philadelphia for a Feb. 26 meeting with Villanova at noon (BIG EAST Television).

USF will close out its regular season on Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. when it butts heads with No. 18/18 Georgetown.