USF hosted recently Division I elevated West Georgia (UWG) on Friday night in their second home game of the young season. The Bulls elected to sit normal starters Kobe Knox and Jayden Reid, so their performance depended on the depth that has recently been built within the program.
UWG got out to a hot start. Forward Shelton Williams-Dryden opened the scoring with a mid-range fadeaway followed by drawing a foul on his second consecutive make.
With a quick 5-0 deficit to overcome, USF forward De’Ante Green responded by opening the scoring for the Bulls on a layup. The two sides continued to trade blows for the first five minutes of the game until USF guard Kasen Jennings tied the score at 9-9 off a jump shot.
USF was able to gain their first lead of the night off a layup from guard Jimmie Williams to make the score 17-16.
Over the next few minutes, the Bulls went on a 13-4 run to earn themselves a double digit lead at 30-20. UWG guard Kyric Davis spoiled their run by draining a three-pointer to bring the Wolves back in it.
Going into halftime, the Bulls expanded their scoring margin to 13 at 37-24. Guard CJ Brown scored the final bucket of the first half.
Guard Brandon Stroud opened the second half scoring with a layup for USF. The Wolves used the first five minutes of the half to limit the USF lead as a Williams-Dryden layup brought the score closer at 43-35.
South Florida started to fall apart offensively before Kasen Jennings found an open guard in the corner, Quincy Ademokoya, who drained a three-pointer to revive the team’s offense. CJ Brown hit another shot from the beyond the arc to return the Bulls to a double digit lead. Ademokoya then hit USF’s third straight three-point shot as they opened their lead up to 14 points by a score of 53-39 with ten minutes remaining in the game.
The Bulls continued to pour it on with bucket after bucket and increased their lead all the way up to 18 points with two minutes to go in the game. After one more three point shot from Brandon Stroud, USF regained possession and ran out the remainder of the clock to take a victory 74-55 over UWG.
Following the game, USF interim head coach Ben Fletcher said, “we feel like we have versatility. We have different line ups that we can throw out there… that’s just the way we built the team… for versatility.”
Jimmie Williams finished the game as the highest scorer for USF with 14 points in the contest. CJ Brown was the most integral performer of the night as he was perfect from both the field and the free throw line as he finished with 11 points on the night.
The Bulls proved their depth in this game as they managed to dominate even while sitting key starters. Now at 2-2 on the season, USF gets nearly a week off before their next matchup as they travel to play Portland on Thursday as they continue their non-conference games to start the campaign.