By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer
WACO, Texas, NOV. 19, 2015 – No. 19/17 USF showed it can hang with one of the top teams in the nation at one of the toughest venues in the country Thursday night.
The Bulls outscored No. 5/4 Baylor in the fourth quarter and Courtney Williams' last-second 3-point attempt hit the front of the rim in a 66-63 loss in the Preseason WNIT semifinals.
USF (2-1) cut a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter all the way down to 59-58 with less than two minutes remaining at the Ferrell Center. Baylor (3-0) has lost only two games at home in past five years, a span of nearly 100 outings.
“I'm happy with our group,” head coach Jose Fernandez said. “That first quarter we dug ourselves in that nine-point hole. You win the second quarter (14-11), lose the third by two and then you win the fourth by five. It comes down to possessions.”
Alisia Jenkins scored nine points and became just the second player in USF history to register 1,000 career rebounds by grabbing a game-high 14 boards. The senior forward from Statesboro, Ga., is now 70 rebounds away from tying the program record set by Wanda Guyton (1,077).
Williams continued her hot start to the season with a game-high 23 points while Laura Ferreira finished with a season-high 14 points. Katelyn Weber grabbed 11 rebounds to help the Bulls stay close in the battle on the boards with Baylor's taller lineup.
Baylor will host DePaul in the Preseason WNIT championship on Sunday after getting double-digit scoring performances from Nina Davis (15), Kalani Brown (11) and Niya Johnson (10). Kristina Higgins posted 10 rebounds as Baylor finished with a 42-38 edge on the glass.
“I think it was a very good basketball game between two teams early in the second week of the season,” Fernandez said.
Thursday's top-25 showdown started with an early surge by the home team in the second meeting between the programs.
Baylor scored 11 consecutive points during a game-opening 14-3 run. The Lady Bears knocked down their final three shots of the first quarter to extend their lead to 23-14. USF started 5-for-19 from the field while Jenkins and Shalethia Stringfield led the Bulls with two points apiece. Stringfield finished with five points and a team-high seven assists.
USF heated up on the offensive end and trimmed the Baylor lead down to 34-28 by halftime.
Jenkins scored off her 1,000th-career rebound to cut USF's deficit to 27-20 with 4:24 left in the second quarter. Jenkins had a team-high with six points and eight rebounds in the first half and her layup cut the deficit to 32-28 with 16 seconds remaining in the second quarter.
“Our kids battled and we answered, but it was tough. We missed a lot of wide-open shots today,” said Fernandez after the Bulls went 23-for-73 from the field (31 percent).
Despite starting 0-for-9 from the field, Williams became the first player to score in double figures and her layup took the USF deficit down to 48-41 near the end of the third quarter.
Ferreira jumped into double figures with consecutive 3-pointers that cut the Baylor lead to 55-49 with less than seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. The Bulls continued on their 10-0 run and Williams' 3-pointer took the Baylor lead all the way down to 55-54 with 5:26 to play.
Williams' jumper got the Bulls back within a point with 2:08 remaining and the senior was inches away from connecting in the final seconds.
“They're No. 4 in the country for a reason, but we're right there,” Fernandez said. “We had a shot at the end to tie it, we were out of timeouts and I wish we had one there where you could run something. But we just have to get back and get back to work.”
USF returns to the Sun Dome to host Butler on Wednesday, Nov. 25 at 7 p.m. Reserve your seats at USFBullsTix.com.
Jose Fernandez's 2015 women's basketball team returns all five starters, including All-American Candidate Courtney Williams, from a team that posted a 27-8 (15-3 American) record in 2014-15 and finished the season in the top 25 rankings. The squad finished second behind eventual NCAA champion UConn in the American Athletic Conference and made an exciting NCAA Tournament run that saw USF top LSU in front of 5,560 fans in the Sun Dome in the NCAA regional round.
In 2015-16, the Bulls will be hosting their toughest schedule yet, including the opening rounds of the Preseason WNIT, along with perennial powers Penn State, Chattanooga, Oklahoma State and UConn making trips to Tampa. Season tickets, starting at just $65, are available for purchase online at USFBullsTix.com, by phone at 1-800-GoBulls or in person at the Gate B ticket office of the Sun Dome, with single game tickets going on sale in late September.
USF has made 11 postseason tournament appearances and had three NCAA Tournament berths in Head Coach Jose Fernandez's 15 seasons. The all-time winningest coach in program history, Fernandez has guided USF to six 20-win seasons, two WNIT final four appearances, the 2009 WNIT championship and won more than 260 games.
– #GoBulls –
