TAMPA, NOV. 26, 2017 – USF held slim lead at halftime but was unable to bring home its third straight victory to close out the Hoosier Tip-Off Classic. Eastern Michigan mounted an 18-2 run over nine minutes, starting with 15 minutes remaining in the second half and never looked back, taking the Sunday afternoon matchup, 65-47.
The loss takes the Bulls to 4-3 on the season and USF closes out the Hoosier Tip-Off Classic with a 2-2 record.
Payton Banks (Orange, Calif.) was the Bulls leading scorer with 10 points.
David Collins (Youngstown, Ohio) and
Malik Martin (Miami, Fla.) each had eight points.
Terrence Samuel (Brooklyn, N.Y.) pulled down nine rebounds to lead USF on the glass, a new career high.
The Bulls held the rebounding advantage throughout, finishing with 35 team rebounds, including a 13-8 lead in offensive rebounds. The 13 offensive boards ties a season high for the Bulls, which was set at Indiana.
Quotable
Head coach Brian Gregory on his team's defense:
"Give Rob (Murphy) and his team a ton of credit. I thought we did a great job defensively and rebounding-wise in the first half. Too many turnovers for us in the first half with 11, but I thought we were really good defensively. That's how we're going to have to compete in games, especially when you play better teams, higher quality teams like Eastern is."
Brian Gregory on the loss:
"It's very similar to our two other losses. We're going to struggle at times to put the ball in the basket. Some of that is personnel driven, some of that is because of all the newness and different things like that. Sometimes we just don't shoot the ball well, and that's going to happen. What we have to do is hang our hat on the defensive end, the rebounding, and sharing the basketball."
Key Stats
29.2 – The Bulls shot a season-low 29.2 percent (14-for-48) from the field.
9 – Eastern Michigan committed only nine turnovers in the game, compared to 16 for the Bulls.
19 – The Eagles converted 19 points off of the Bulls 16 turnovers.
Notable
- David Collins tied his career high with eight points, including his first collegiate three-pointer.
- The Bulls had assists on 13 of 14 made baskets, including four from Terrence Samuel and three each from Stephan Jiggetts and Tulio Da Silva.
- Payton Banks appeared in his 100th career collegiate game, scoring 10 points with three rebounds.
- This was the first time since March 2, 2016 against East Carolina that the Bulls shot less than 30 percent from the field.
Up Next
USF hits the road for a two-game road trip beginning Thursday, Nov. 30 at Elon. The North Carolina swing concludes on Saturday, Dec. 2 at Appalachian State. Both games are slated for 7 p.m.
About USF Men's Basketball
The USF men's basketball team is led by head coach Brian Gregory. On March 22, Gregory was introduced as the 10th head coach in program history. He previously led programs at Georgia Tech (2011-16) and Dayton (2003-11). Gregory spent nearly a decade as an assistant coach under Michigan State's Hall of Fame head coach Tom Izzo and helped the Spartans win the 2000 NCAA National Championship. Gregory brings nearly 250 career head coaching wins and six postseason appearances, including the 2010 NIT Championship, to Tampa.
USF has retired three numbers in its 47-year history: Chucky Atkins (12), Charlie Bradley (30) and Radenko Dobras (31). The Bulls have earned three NCAA tournament bids and appeared in the NIT eight times.
For tickets, contact the USF Ticket Office at 1-800-Go-Bulls or by going online to USFBullsTix.com.
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