FORT WORTH, Texas (March 9, 2023) – The University of South Florida Bulls and East Carolina Pirates met for the third time this season in the opening round of the American Championship on Thursday afternoon at Dickies Arena. South Florida got the best of ECU in both regular season matchups, but the Pirates prevailed on Thursday with a 73-58 victory.
The Bulls conclude their season at 14-18. ECU improves to 16-16.
South Florida led by as many as 10 points on three occasions in the first half, including a 24-14 advantage with 8:37 left in the period. The Pirates then used an 11-2 run to make it a one-point game before Tyler Harris connected on one of his six three-pointers in the game to give USF a 29-25 cushion at the 4:39 mark.
ECU eventually overtook the lead with 1:34 left in the half and carried a 41-33 advantage into the break.
The Pirates never relinquished their lead and build a double-digit advantage at the 15:48 mark of the second half and carried it to the final whistle.
USF shot 48 percent in the first half (4-for-8 from downtown) before slumping to 29 percent in the second half (3-for-13 from downtown).
Harris paced the Bulls with 26 points for his 10th 20-point scoring output of the season (18th career). Sam Hines Jr. tallied eight points, six rebounds, two assists and three blocks. Russel Tchewa scored seven points and pulled down a team-best 11 rebounds.
Notable
- Harris finished the season with 97 three-pointers – a new USF single-season record.
- Harris also set a new AAC career record for three-pointers during his final season of eligibility.
- Harris concludes his five-year collegiate career with 329 triples.
- Harris scored a career-best 540 points this season, falling just 18 points outside the USF Top 10 all-time; he is one of only 14 Bulls to post a 500-point season in program history.
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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 sixth season in 2022-23. 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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