TAMPA, NOV. 19, 2015 – Going up against a team that recently defeated No. 6 Virginia, the USF men's basketball team saw improvement in many facets of the game, but fell to George Washington 73-67 Thursday at the Sun Dome.

“I think we are showing signs of getting better and improving in some areas,” said head coach Orlando Antigua. “Those kids are down, but they battled a little bit. We still haven't put a complete game together. One where we take care of the ball, rebound the way we are capable of rebounding like we showed tonight, make our free throws and share the ball.”

The Bulls (0-3) had an big edge in rebounds, 49-37, including 11 more offensive rebounds than the Colonials (3-0). Leading the rebounding effort was senior center Jaleel Cousins with 11, a new career high.

“We challenged them on that. It's the first time that we've played a team with similar size,” Antigua said. “I thought our bigs did a good job on their two big guys.”

USF trailed 33-30 at halftime and as many as 13 in the second half, but hung around with some clutch defense and timely 3-pointers. The Bulls trailed by three points, 60-57 with 4:04 remaining after a layup by Nehemias Morillo. The Colonials extended their lead to 10 points with 33 seconds left before USF hit its next three 3-pointers, including two by freshman Jahmal McMurray, who had a game-high 17 points.

With the Bulls trailing 71-67 with nine seconds left to play, GW hit both of its foul shots to seal the win and I improve to 4-1 in the all-time series.

“There are a couple of things we have to clean up, but the effort is there and our focus and attention was a lot better tonight,” Antigua said. “There is a lot of room to grow.”

Junior forward Chris Perry finished one rebound shy of his second double-double of the season with 11 points and nine rebounds. Sophomore guard Roddy Peters had 12 points and three rebounds before fouling out with 1:48 left in the game.

USF continues its long homestand with its fourth game in nine days on Saturday at 7 p.m. against Boston University. Reserve your Sun Dome seats at USFBullsTix.com.

The USF men's basketball team returns seven from last season's team including regular starters Ruben Guerrero, Chris Perry, Nehemias Morillo and Bo Zeigler. Orlando Antigua is in his second season as the head coach after spending the previous five season as an assistant to Naismith Hall of Fame coach John Calipari. USF's schedule is comprised of nine teams which had an RPI of 54 or better last season. The Bulls host 19 games, five of those teams made the NCAA Tournament last season.