Bulls Set for War on I-4 Rematch on Sunday in Orlando
Matchup:USF Bulls (11-10, 2-5 AAC) vs. UCF Knights (18-3, 7-1 AAC)
Date:Sunday Feb. 3, 2019
Time:1 p.m. ET
Location: Orlando, Fla., CFE Arena
Broadcast:ESPN2 (Pam Ward & Carolyn Peck)
Radio: AM 1040&
Bulls Unlimited(
Darek Sharp & Brigid Merenda)
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Twitter Updates:@USFWBB
TAMPA, Fla. Feb. 1, 2019 – USF women's basketball will travel across Interstate 4 to Orlando for a Sunday afternoon rematch at 1 p.m. against rivals UCF, the game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2 with Pam Ward and Carolyn Peck on the call.
USF (11-10, 2-5 AAC) is looking to avenge a 62-49 loss in January to UCF (18-3, 7-1), who is receiving votes in the national polls. Since then, the Bulls took down Tulane in a dominating 73-44 fashion, before dropping three last-minute conference decisions. Just five Bulls are playing the majority of the minutes since the Bulls saw the Knights on Jan. 7.
Career-High Night
USF is coming off of a 56-57 last-minute loss to Cincinnati at Wednesday night in the Yuengling Center, but the outcome saw a career high night for Bulls
Enna Pehadzic and
Luize Septe. Pehadzic (Horsens, Denmark), had a career high 22 points while Septe (Ventspils, Latvia) had a career high 10 points and a career high eight assists to help USF.
Battered Bulls
South Florida has been limited to just eight healthy players, with five Bulls carrying the bulk of the minutes. Adversity struck the Bulls this season, who have been without five players, including three Bulls out for the season. In the contest against Cincinnati, five Bulls played 38 minutes or more while two other Bulls combined for eight minutes.
Kitija Laksa (Riga, Latvia), USF's returning leading scorer for the 2018-19 campaign and player of the year candidate, suffered a season-ending injury on Nov. 15.
Beatriz Jordao (Pombal, Portugal), after a promising start, will forego the remainder of her freshman campaign when a nagging injury won out to end 2018. Freshman
Silvia Serrat (Banyoles, Spain) is sidelined with a ACL/meniscus tear suffered in the offseason. Senior
Laura Ferreira (Lisboa, Portugal) has missed action due to illness and junior
Alyssa Rader (Thornton, Colo.) has missed the last five games with a concussion.
Next Man Up Mentality
Sydni Harvey (Nashville, Tenn.) carries the bulk of the scoring of healthy players, averaging 12.9 points per game. She is the lone Bull to play and start in all 21 games. Pehadzic is right behind with 9.3 points per game and has scored 20 points or more three times since Dec. 9.
Shae Leverett (Rincon, Ga.) and
Tamara Henshaw (Palm Coast, Fla.) are the only other Bulls to play in all 21 contests and both average over 7.0 points per game and 7.0 rebounds per game.
Harvey's Hot from the Charity Stripe
Sydni Harvey is hitting 88.7 percent of her shots from the free-throw line, a conference leading statistic.
Boards for the Bulls
Rebounding has been the secret weapon for the Bulls, who are out-performing opponents on the boards by 11.7 per game, good enough for seventh nationally. USF leads the conference in rebounding offense, rebounding defense, rebounding margin, defensive rebounding percentage and offensive rebounding percentage.
The Opponent
UCF Knights (Receiving Votes)
UCF is coming off a close 58-56 win over Houston in Orlando this week, a bounce back win for the Knights who tell to top conference opponent UConn by nearly 40 points on Sunday. Kay Kay Wright leads the Knights in scoring, averaging 17.6 points per game, but is the lone Knight to average double figures. Nyala Shuler leads UCF on the boards with 7.4 rebounds per contest.
In the all-time series against UCF, USF leads 28-10. In the last meeting on Jan. 7, 2019, USF fell 49-62 in the Knights' first victory over the Bulls since Feb. 2017 (66-62). Before 2017, UCF had not defeated USF since Dec. 1980.
Notable
- Enna Pehadzic had a career high 22 points in the contest against Cincinnati. She also tied her career high in three pointers made with five triples.
- Luize Septe had a career high 10 points and a career high eight assists, helping USF in 13-of-20 team field goals on the night.
- Against Cincinnati, Tamara Henshaw and Shae Leverett each had nine rebounds on the night and Leverett neared a double-double with nine rebounds and eight points.
- Henshaw led USF with two double-doubles last week, where she set her career high in points and rebounds.
- USF defeated Tulane by 27, The highest margin in a conference game for USF this year, and the largest winning margin for USF since it defeated Vermont on Dec. 17, 2018.
- Rebounding is a key for USF, who is out-performing opponents on the boards by 11.7, a good enough margin for seventh nationally and conference-leading statistic.
- Sydni Harvey leads the conference in free-throw percentage with 88.7 percent efficiency.
- The Bulls have been without Silvia Serrat, Kitija Laksa, Beatriz Jordao, Laura Ferreira and Alyssa Rader in the contest against Cincinnati. The inactive Bulls average over 50 points this season.
Follow the Action
The game will be nationally broadcasted on ESPN2 with Pam Ward and Carolyn Peck analyzing the action. Fans can follow the action with live radio on AM 1040 and. on Bulls Unlimited with
Darek Sharp on the call and Brigid Merenda analyzing the action. Live stats will be available on StatBroadcast and on GoUSFBulls.com.
Up Next
USF will finish a road swing the Tulane on Feb. 6 at 7 p.m. on National Women and Girls in Sports Day. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN3.
War on I-4 Rivalry
The War on I-4 represents a long-standing and passionate rivalry between the fan bases of two of the nation's largest and fastest growing universities. The Orlando and Tampa Bay metropolitan areas, which form the fourth-largest media market in the nation, are connected by 100 short miles of Interstate 4 (I-4).
The official recognition of the rivalry and the traditional name, first established by the fans, creates an annual series of scored competitions across multiple sports programs. The War On I-4 rivalry series officially began Sept. 21, 2016 with a competition between the two schools' volleyball programs.
For more information on the War on I-4 Rivalry, visit https://www.war-on-i4.com.
About USF Women's Basketball
To stay up-to-date on the latest USF women's basketball news, follow the Bulls on social media (
Twitter |
Facebook |
Instagram).
USF notched its sixth consecutive 20-win season and fourth straight NCAA Tournament appearance in 2017-18. It marked the ninth 20-win season in program history, with head coach Jose Fernandez at the helm for all nine. The Bulls posted 26 wins in 2017-18, just shy of the program record of 27 set in 2008-09 and 2014-15.
USF has made 14 postseason tournament appearances and had six NCAA Tournament berths in head coach Jose Fernandez's 18 seasons. The all-time winningest coach in program history, Fernandez has guided USF to nine 20-win seasons, two WNIT final four appearances, the 2009 WNIT championship and won more than 300 games.
--#GoBulls –
