The USF Bulls were back home Thursday night and were ready for some home cooking as they welcomed Utah State to the Yuengling Center. The Bulls put together their most impressive performance this season in taking down the Utah State Aggies 74-61 to give the Aggies their first loss of the season.
The three-point shots were falling early for the Bulls with everyone contributing. Joe Pinion, Wes Enis, CJ Brown, and Josh Omojafo all had three pointers to stake the Bulls to an early lead over Utah State. USF continued its offensive onslaught, draining three-point shots, and allowing Utah State no second-chance points as the Bulls extended their lead 26-11, just past the 11-minute mark in the first half.
Some good defense propelled the Bulls’ offense, as they held the Aggies to 2-of-14 shooting from the three-point line and 24 percent shooting overall in the first half. At one point in the half, the Bulls went on a 17-2 run, helping them build a 21-point halftime lead, 41-20.
Coach Hodgson called this half the best half of basketball the Bulls have played this season, both offensively and defensively: “Yeah, not even close. Probably double our last effort on both ends of the floor. Just an elite performance against a really good team. We didn’t do that against a bad team. We did that against an elite offensive team. And so, yeah, by far our best single half performance of the year.”
Joseph Pinion led all scorers with 11 points in the first half, hitting on three three-pointers. The Bulls were also aggressive on the glass, out-rebounding Utah State 25-17 in the first half.
The second half started at a much slower pace, as the two teams traded baskets for the first five minutes, with the Bulls maintaining a 47-28 lead. A couple of sloppy turnovers by USF led to easy baskets by Utah State, cutting the Bulls’ lead to 50-35 with 11:57 to play. But the Bulls’ defense was too strong, and Utah State could never get much going offensively against a USF defense that Coach Hodgson called the best the Bulls have played this season.
The Aggies cut the USF lead to 67-53 with 4:09 to play and traded baskets the rest of the way, with the Bulls winning 74-59. Pinion led all scorers with 17 points while Izaiyah Nelson had 11 points to go with his ten rebounds.
Bulls forward Josh Omojafo said the team has really worked on defense since the return from the Bahamas: “You know, we really harped on defense, and I think everybody just bought in, like, coach said, we just, you know, locked in that 1st half. I think it’s probably some of the best defense we’ve played, and I think we have all the guys capable to just keep that going forward.”
After going 1-2 in the Bahamas, Hodgson said both he and the team were not happy with the performance and knew something had to change. “You know, we definitely wanted to come out and apply pressure, because I feel like we’re one of the more athletic teams, so we should be able to really, you know, really pressure teams and cause trouble for them. I think we did that tonight,” he said.
The Bulls are now 5-4 on the season, while Utah State suffered its first loss of the season and now sit at 7-1.
USF will be back home next Wednesday to take on the College of Charleston.