USF Travels to New Orleans to Take On Tulane Wednesday Night
Matchup:USF Bulls (11-11, 2-6 AAC) vs. UCF Knights (14-7, 4-4 AAC)
Date:Wednesday Feb. 6, 2019
Time:8 p.m. ET
Location: New Orleans, Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse
Broadcast:ESPN3 (Despina Barton & Kelly Stewart)
Radio: AM 1040&
Bulls Unlimited(
Darek Sharp)
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Twitter Updates:@USFWBB
TAMPA, Fla. Feb. 5, 2019 – USF women's basketball will travel to New Orleans to take on Tulane for the second time this season in the Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET.
USF (11-11, 2-6 AAC) took down Tulane in a dominating 73-44 fashion last month when the Green Wave were receiving votes in the national polls, before dropping four last-minute conference decisions. Just five Bulls are playing the majority of the minutes since the Bulls saw the the Green Wave on Jan. 19. The Bulls welcomed
Alyssa Rader (Thornton, Colo.) back to the roster on Sunday in the close contest against UCF, where she showed out with an 18-point performance after a five game hiatus due to injury. Rader gave the Bulls a much-needed boost late in the game and gave USF the lead in the fourth quarter, but late scoring runs by UCF and missed shots seals the narrow 63-66 defeat.
National Women And Girls in Sports Day
Wednesday Feb. 6 serves as National Women and Girls in Sports Day. USF is proud to honor this holiday in its women's basketball game on Wednesday night at Tulane and to provide opportunities to women through sports.
Rader Returns
Rader returned to the Bulls healthy roster on Sunday Feb. 3, after suffering a concussion and missing five games in January. She boosted USF with 18 points in 25 minutes of play against UCF and sparked multiple momentum swings for the Bulls, keeping USF fighting for the win until the final minute. She is one of nine healthy Bulls, comprised of five freshmen, available to USF currently.
Battered Bulls
South Florida has been limited to just nine healthy players, with five Bulls carrying the bulk of the minutes. Adversity struck the Bulls this season, who have been without five players and are now without four players with the addition of Rader, 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.
Next Man Up Mentality
Sydni Harvey (Nashville, Tenn.) carries the bulk of the scoring of healthy players, averaging 12.6 points per game. She is the lone Bull to play and start in all 22 games. Pehadzic is right behind with 9.6 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 rebounds per game. Rader is averaging 8.5 points per game and 7.4 rebounds per game.
Harvey's Hot from the Charity Stripe
Sydni Harvey is hitting 89.3 percent of her shots from the free-throw line, a conference leading statistic, and good enough for top-15 nationally.
Boards for the Bulls
Rebounding has been a weapon for the Bulls, who are out-performing opponents on the boards by 11.4 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
Tulane Green Wave
Tulane is coming off a close 63-61 loss at ECU on Saturday, Feb. 2. The Green Wave have lost four of its last five games, dating back to the 38-point loss suffered at UConn, before a 27-point loss to USF.
Krystal Freeman leads the Green Wave with 13.5 points per game and rebounds with 7.1 rebounds per game. Sierra Cheatham is right behind with 9.2 points per game to help Tulane. Freeman recorded two double-doubles last week and was named to the AAC Honor Roll.
Notable
- Alyssa Rader returned to USF's lineup and led the Bulls with 18 points in the contest at UCF.
- For the second time in one week, Enna Pehadzic tied her career high three-pointers made with five makes against UCF.
- Last month, USF defeated Tulane by 27, the highest margin in a conference game for USF this year.
- Rebounding is a key for USF, who is out-performing opponents on the boards by 11.4, a good enough margin for seventh nationally and conference-leading statistic.
- Sydni Harvey leads the conference in free-throw percentage with 89.3 percent efficiency, and a good enough mark for top-15 nationally.
Follow the Action
The game will be broadcast live on ESPN3 with Despina Barton and Kelly Stewart analyzing the action. Fans can follow the action with live radio on AM 1040 and on Bulls Unlimited with
Darek Sharp on the call. Live stats will be available on StatBroadcast.
Up Next
USF will return home to face Houston on Sunday, Dec. 10 at 2 p.m. in a double-header with men's basketball. The women will celebrate the annual pink game in affiliation with Play4Kay, to support finding a cure for breast cancer. USF will wear pink jerseys and for every Bulls' free throw made in February, fans are encouraged to donate to find a cure for breast cancer.
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 –
