By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer
NEW YORK - The Bulls came up just short of reaching their first-ever Big East tournament semifinal Thursday night.
USF had a lead over No. 23 Notre Dame with less than a minute to go in regulation but couldn't hold onto the momentum in a 57-53 overtime loss in the quarterfinals at Madison Square Garden.
"I'm real proud of my guys. That was a heck of a game. We had it," USF head coach Stan Heath said. "I thought we just let it slip away in regulation and made some mistakes and didn't finish some plays that we should have finished. But I thought we played hard."
Eric Atkins' 3-pointer with 35 seconds remaining proved to be the difference-maker for Notre Dame, which took a 54-50 lead on the play.
Toarlyn Fitzpatrick delivered a dramatic 3-pointer for USF with 5 seconds left, but the Bulls failed to get another good look at the hoop. The Bulls now must wait to see if they get the program's first NCAA tournament bid since thet 1991-92 on Selection Sunday.
"I think we've done a great job by putting ourselves in a great position. I think our team is worthy," Heath said. "But there's some people that have a lot of information that make wise decisions, and we'll let our case rest with them."
Victor Rudd. Jr. posted a team-high 16 points and Anthony Collins added 13 in the end of USF's string of firsts in Big East play. The Bulls (20-13) set a new program record with 12 regular season Big East victories. A program-record 13th win got USF to its first-ever Big East quarterfinal.
The Bulls were forced to come back after starting Thursday's game well ahead.
USF surged out of the gates to open the game on a 20-8 run before Notre Dame controlled the final 8 minutes of the first half and wound up with a 28-26 advantage.
Collins' 3-pointer gave the Bulls the 12-point lead with a 3 pointer and had 11 going into the break. The problem for USF was a stretch of 9 minutes, 10 seconds without a bucket while Notre Dame went on an 18-0 run.
Jerian Grant's jumper gave the Irish their first lead of the game, 22-20, with 6:21 to go before the break. Grant and Scott Martin each had 11 by halftime while Notre Dame shot 50 percent from the field.
Hugh Robertson scored the Bulls' final four points of the half and his layup beat the buzzer to keep USF within streaking distance after the first 20 minutes.
A rare 3-pointer by Augustus Gilchrist gave the Bulls a 31-30 advantage 4 minutes, 29 seconds into the second half. Jack Cooley's free throw tied it up, but a Gilchrist jumper put USF back ahead with 12:50 remaining.
USF was able to get a lead thanks to holding Notre Dame to 9 minutes, 58 seconds without a field goal.
A five-point burst by Rudd Jr. helped the Bulls get ahead by four and Gilchrist got to the line, sunk both shots and gave the USF a 41-36 advantage with less than 9 minutes left.
Alex Dragicevich's 3-pointer got Notre Dame back within two and Patrick Connaughton added another to suddenly swing the favor back to the Irish by a 42-41 margin with less than 7 minutes to go in regulation.
The Bulls were dealt with a little adversity when Collins was forced to briefly come out of the game with an injured finger. Collins came back in, gave USF a 45-42 lead with his 13th point and made a diving save that saved USF a valuable possession with less than 2 minutes to go.
Grant made what could have been a fatal mistake for Notre Dame when he tried to get fouled and failed with less than a minute to go and the Bulls clinging to the three-point lead. Grant made up for his mistake with a steal against Rudd Jr., who fouled with 38 seconds left. Grant went to the line, made both and USF's lead shrunk to a point.
What seemed to be close win in regulation for USF was done in by mental mistakes.
Jawanza Poland missed a wide-open layup, but got the rebound back and was fouled with 30 seconds remaining. The junior missed, fouled Connaughton in transition and USF wound up tied at 45. Connaugton missed the go-ahead free throw with 26 seconds on the clock.
Heath quickly called a timeout with 15.9 seconds remaining but the Bulls never got a shot off before regulation was in the books.
Notre Dame opened the OT period with a layup, but Rudd Jr. answered with his fourth 3-pointer of the game.
Connaughton went to the line with 3:53 left and sunk both to put Notre Dame ahead, 49-48, and Cooley's layup in traffic gave the Irish a three-point lead with less than 3 minutes to go.
USF took the shot clock all the way down until Collins found Robertson for a layup. Notre Dame missed on its next possession, but the Bulls had a shot clock violation with 1:02 to play.
The Irish wound the clock all the way down to 29 seconds left when Atkins delivered the 3-point dagger.
Fitzpatrick gave USF its own dramatic 3-pointer with 2.5 seconds left, but Atkins went to the line and gave Notre Dame a 55-53 margin. Atkins' miss on his second free throw led to possession for USF with 1 second remaining. Rudd Jr. came up about a foot short of the ball on the in-bounds, but referees ruled it Notre Dame's ball despite no USF player touching it in play.
