By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer

TAMPA, JAN. 31, 2018 – Freshman David Collins poured in a career-high 21 points while USF finished with five players in double figures in an 86-74 loss to Memphis on Wednesday night.

Collins topped his previous career high of 15 points on an all-around impressive night that saw the Youngstown, Ohio native go 10-for-11 from the free throw line with four assists and four rebounds. Collins' 21 marked the most points by a USF freshman since Malik Fitts scored 29 against Memphis on Feb. 2, 2017.

Payton Banks (Orange, Calif.) sank four threes and finished with 16 points. Freshman Justin Brown (Birmingham, Ala.) scored all 13 of his points in the second half and finished three points shy of his career high.

Terrence Samuel (Brooklyn, N.Y.) posted 12 points and Stephan Jiggetts (Forestville, Md.) added 10 points to help USF (8-15, 1-9 in AAC) finish with five players in double figures for the first time since Dec. 15, 2015 against Jacksonville.

Wednesday's first half featured six lead changes in the first three minutes before Memphis (14-8, 5-4) took control down the stretch on the way to a 42-32 halftime lead. The Tigers shot 51 percent from the field before the break and did their damage at close range with 30 points in the paint.

Collins was well on his way to a new career high after leading all scorers in the opening half with 11 points. The aggressive freshman went 5-for-5 from the free throw line while USF made all of its 11 shots from the charity stripe in the first 20 minutes.

Memphis used a 12-0 run after the break to extend its lead to 54-35 while USF went nearly six minutes without a basket. The Tigers led by 20 with 10:32 remaining but the battling Bulls cut their deficit to 76-67 by the two-minute mark.

Quotable
Head coach Brian Gregory on his team battling back in the second half:
"I thought our guys, especially our young guys, really fought there at the end to get that thing back to a workable number at the end. But we were just not able to get enough shots and they shot well from the free throw line down the stretch."

David Collins on the Bulls making progress in putting together a complete performance:
"For a glimpse, you could see it. We cut the lead down easy. We've just got to put it all together for one whole game. I think that should be our biggest emphasis is putting one whole game together and not just having spurts throughout the whole game. I think we're close. We practice hard, we've just got to transition it to the game."

Key Stats
46 – Memphis finished with a 46-26 advantage in points in the paint.
24 – USF shot 92 percent from the free throw line, going 24-for-26.
18 – The Tigers scored 18 points off 17 USF turnovers.

Notable

• USF is shooting 36.5 percent from three-point range in conference play after shooting 40 percent from beyond the arc (8-for-20) against Memphis.
• Payton Banks now needs only 68 more points to reach 1,000 in his career. Banks could become the second USF player to reach the milestone this season after Stephan Jiggetts reached 1,000 points against Bethune-Cookman on Dec. 14.

Up Next
USF returns to the Sun Dome to host Tulsa on Sunday at 1 p.m. (TV: ESPN3). Reserve your seats at USFBullsTix.com or by calling 1-800-Go-Bulls.
 
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 10^th 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.