ORLANDO, Fla. (February 3, 2022) – The University of South Florida Bulls (6-14, 1-7 AAC) settled for a War On I-4 series split on Thursday night. After the Bulls claimed a 24-point victory over UCF in Tampa last month, the Knights defended their home court with a 68-49 triumph over USF.
Caleb Murphy (Youngstown, Ohio) and Russel Tchewa (Douala, Cameroon) combined for 24 points as the only two Bulls to score in double figures. Darin Green Jr. and Darius Perry combined for 43 points for the Knights as the two leading scorers.
That duo shot 11-22 from downtown in a three-point barrage for UCF (14-32).
"It was a tale of two games against UCF this year," said head coach Brian Gregory. "We didn't rebound the ball tonight and that made the difference for us last time. If we don't shoot the ball well, we have to hang our hats on rebounding and defense. And, we didn't do a good job of closing out the first half again."
Murphy's first three-pointer of the season staked South Florida to its first lead of the game, 9-8 at the 12:59 mark of the first half. UCF pulled back in front on a triple by Green Jr. with nine minutes on the clock and continued to lead from there. The Knights then stretched their lead to double digits with an 11-5 run over the final five minutes of the half to carry a 36-24 advantage into the break.
That run continued into the early minutes of the second half as UCF pushed its lead to 49-31 at the 13:16 mark on another three-pointer. The Knights knocked down seven triples in each half and commanded the game until USF went on a seven-point run late in the half to cut its deficit back to 15 with four minutes left to play.
South Florida was limited to 2-13 shooting from downtown and lost the rebounding battle, 42-32, after out-rebounding UCF in the last meeting by 27.
"I thought we let some fast break opportunities get away from us, and we need those to be able to cut into deficits, like we did late in the game," Gregory added. "We have to recognize who we are right now and be okay with that. If we aren't hitting shots, we have to really lean on other aspects of the game to grind out victories moving forward."
Notable
- Javon Greene (McDonough, Ga.) dished out a career-high seven assists for the Bulls.
- USF was outscored on the fastbreak, 15-6, and only scored 10 points off 19 UCF turnovers.
- UCF's 14 three-pointers were the most allowed by USF this season.
Up Next
The Bulls will now open a stretch of six games over 13 days beginning at home on Monday, February 7 against Temple. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at the Yuengling Center in Tampa.
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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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