No. 24 USF played their final home game of the season on Tuesday evening as they hosted Tulane in a great matchup that saw the Bulls emerge victorious.
The Bulls suffered a slow start as Tulane quickly got out to a 7-0 lead. USF guard Kasean Pryor got the scoring started by putting up the first seven points for the Bulls. USF got their first lead five minutes into the game off of a successful three point shot from guard Chris Youngblood to make the score 10-9.
Youngblood continued to score from beyond the arc as he and USF guard Jayden Reid both converted on three point shots to make the lead 20-17 midway through the first half.
Tulane regained the lead in the next five minutes as guard Jaylen Forbes sunk three consecutive three point shots to give the Green Wave a four point advantage at 33-29.
USF and Tulane went back and forth in the final five minutes of the half, but Jayden Reid and Selton Miguel stood out for the Bulls and gave themselves a 44-43 halftime lead through way of multiple three point shots.
Coming out of halftime, both teams continued to perform at a similar pace with the score drawing even at 52-52 just over five minutes into the second half.
As the half dipped under 10 minutes left, Chris Youngblood continued to perform for USF as he scored multiple times to give the Bulls a slight cushion at 69-62. For Tulane, Jaylen Forbes acted as the main contributor to keep the Green Wave within striking distance in the second half.
With five minutes remaining in the game, the Bulls did an effective job of running out clock on every possession as they maintained a steady lead at 73-67.
USF then went on a scoring run to put themselves up 11 points off of costly Tulane turnovers. The momentum the Bulls gained in the final few minutes was enough to preserve the lead and close out another American Conference victory. The game ended with a USF victory by a final score of 85-72.
Chris Youngblood was undoubtedly the player of the game for the Bulls as he finished the contest with 29 points after going 10 for 15 on field goals and being perfect on six free throw opportunities. Kasean Pryor, Selton Miguel, and Jayden Reid also contributed solid numbers to the victory as they scored 13, 12, and 11 points respectively.
USF has now expanded their win streak to 15 games which is the longest active streak in the NCAA.
When asked about what it is like to experience such incredible success as a first-year head coach, USF head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim said, “it’s surreal, but I’m not surprised… if you can get a group of people to trust in each other, believe in each other, play for one another, [then] anything can happen.”
After securing their title as regular season champions of the American Conference for the first time in program history, the Bulls are set to play their final regular season game on Saturday at Tulsa to finish off a historic regular season campaign.
USF will look to continue to make history as they prepare to compete as the top seed in the upcoming American Conference tournament. If USF performs well in the AAC tournament, they could see themselves earning a NCAA March Madness tournament bid very soon.