TAMPA (February 15, 2022) – Serrel Smith Jr. (St. Petersburg) gave the University of South Florida a spark off the bench on Tuesday night in the Yuengling Center with 17 points in a 76-57 loss to Tulane.
The Bulls fall to 7-17 (2-10 AAC) on the season while the Green Wave improve to 12-11 (9-5 AAC).
"Tulane has a lot of talented scorers and gave us some difficult matchups tonight," said head coach Brian Gregory. "We've competed really well over the past three games, which gave us an opportunity to win, but we didn't do that today, and that was disappointing."
Jaylen Forbes led all scorers with 22 against the Bulls and was one of four Tulane players in double digits.
Midway through the first half, the Green Wave went on a 14-1 run which allowed the visiting team to take a comfortable 31-18 advantage. South Florida responded with seven-unanswered points shortly after to cut the Tulane lead to six points with three minutes to go before the Green Wave went on another spurt to carry a 41-28 lead into the break.
"Their pressure bothered us tonight and forced us into too many mistakes which resulted in us having to play from behind most of the night," Gregory added.
The Bulls committed 15 turnovers in the game, compared to just seven by Tulane, and were outscored on those miscues, 19-2.
Smith Jr. went 4-7 from three-point range on the night as USF matched its season high with eight triples in the loss.
Russel Tchewa (Douala, Cameroon) matched a career high with 10 rebounds and came up just one point shy of his second double-double of the season.
Notable
- Tchewa is averaging 11.2 points over his last five outings.
- Corey Walker Jr. (Jacksonville) added a career-high 11 points to go along with four rebounds.
- The Bulls pulled down 12 offensive rebounds, compared to zero for Tulane, and scored 11 second-chance points.
- Tulane shot 52.7 percent from the field, a season high allowed by USF.
Up Next
The Bulls continue their stretch of six games in 13 days with two more home games later this week. First up is a rescheduled game against ECU on Thursday at 7 p.m.
To stay up-to-date on the latest USF men's basketball news, follow the Bulls on social media (Twitter | Facebook | Instagram).
About USF Men's Basketball
The USF men's basketball team is led by head coach Brian Gregory, who enters his fifth season in 2021-22. Gregory was introduced as the 10th head coach in program history in March of 2017 after previously leading 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 owns over 300 career head coaching wins and six postseason appearances, including the 2010 NIT Championship with Dayton. In his second season at the helm of the Bulls, Gregory led the team to the best win turnaround in the NCAA, the most single-season wins in school history and the 2019 College Basketball Invitational championship.
USF has retired three numbers in its history: Chucky Atkins (12), Charlie Bradley (30) and Radenko Dobras (31). The Bulls have earned three NCAA tournament bids, appeared in the NIT eight times and won the 2019 College Basketball Invitational.
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