USF Athletics

Bulls Face Tulsa in Road Battle Sunday

February 17, 2018

Matchup: USF (8-19, 1-13 AAC) at Tulsa (15-10, 8-5 AAC)
Date: Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018
Time: 3 p.m. EST
Location: Tulsa, Okla. | Reynolds Center (8,355)
TV: ESPN3 (Chad McKee, Bryndon Manzer)
Radio: AM 820 | USF Bulls Unlimited (Jim Lighthall, Joey Johnston)
Follow: Listen | Stats | Twitter
GAME NOTES

TULSA, Okla., FEB. 17, 2018 – The USF men's basketball heads to Tulsa, Okla., for the second of back-to-back road games on Sunday afternoon. Tip-off is at 3 p.m. EST and will be streamed live on ESPN3.

The Bulls (8-19, 1-13 AAC) are coming off a tough 72-57 loss to UCF on Wednesday night in Orlando. Freshman David Collins (Youngstown, Ohio) controlled the game early, scoring 13 points in the opening half. He finished with 15 points on the night with a career-high tying five rebounds. Collins was 6-for-10 from the field, including 2-for-2 from beyond the arc. The game was the fifth straight in double figures for Collins.

Isaiah Manderson (Bronx, N.Y.) extended a streak of his own against the Knights, reaching double digits for the third straight game. He had 13 points on 6-of-9 from the field and pulled in five rebounds. Over the last three games, Manderson is averaging 15.3 points and 7.0 rebounds per game, while shooting 72. 4 percent (21-for-29) from the field. Of his 21 rebounds in that span, 12 have come on the offensive end of the floor.

As a team, USF turned the ball over a season-low eight times in the game. That marked the first time since Feb. 11, 2017 against ECU that the Bulls turned the ball over fewer than 10 times in a game. Justin Brown, Malik Martin, and Terrence Samuel each played more than 20 minutes without turning the ball over. Collins only had one in his career-high 39 minutes.

THE OPPONENT 
USF faces the Golden Hurricane (15-10, 8-5 AAC) for the second time this season and only the seventh time in team history. Tulsa took the first meeting of the season, 63-54, on Feb. 4 in Tampa.

Stephan Jiggetts (Forestville, Md.) led all scorers in that game with a season-high 22 points. He pulled down seven boards in the game, which is also a season high. Collins was the second-leading scorer for USF, finishing with 11 points to go with five rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Redshirt senior Junior Etou (Republic of Congo) led Tulsa with a double-double, scoring 17 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. For the season, Etou leads the Golden Hurricane in both categories, averaging 15.5 points and 7.9 rebounds. He is third in the American Athletic Conference in rebounding.

Tulsa has won four straight games, dating back to the beginning of February, and currently sits in fourth place in The American. Tulsa last played on Thursday night in a 73-71 victory at UConn in Hartford, Conn. Junior point guard Sterling Taplin (East Amherst, N.Y.) scored a career-high 30 points in the game to lead the charge.

The Golden Hurricane have won all six games in the all-time series with the Bulls, dating back to 2015. The two teams had never met before joining the AAC for the 2014-15 season.

NOTABLES

• In his five-game streak of scoring 10-plus points, David Collins leads the Bulls in scoring with 13.6 points per game. In that span, Collins is shooting 51.1 percent (23-for-45) from the field and 89.5 percent (17-for-19) from the free throw line.
• Isaiah Manderson sits ninth in the conference in field goal percentage for the season, shooting 51.7 percent (77-for-149) from the field. That mark is second on the Bulls behind Malik Martin (Miami, Fla.), who is shooting 54.3 percent (63-for-116) from the field. His 116 attempts are not enough to qualify him for the conference leaderboard.
• Payton Banks (Orange, Calif.) sits only 37 points away from becoming the second Bull to reach the 1,000 point milestone this season. Stephan Jiggetts was the first, against Bethune-Cookman on Dec. 14.

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.