Gavin Hightower scored a career-high 21 points and Izaiyah Nelson added 25 as the USF Bulls beat the UTSA Roadrunners 109-88 Wednesday night.
USF took a 7-3 lead at the 15:50 mark of the half on a Wes Enis 26-foot three-pointer, but UTSA would make it tough on USF the rest of the half. The Bulls had no answer for UTSA’s red-hot shooting as the Roadrunners shot 62% in the first half, including 73% from three-point range. The Roadrunners would take a 29-27 lead with 8:55 to go in the first half on a Jamir Simpson driving layup and would maintain that two-point lead at the half, 50-48.
The intensity, the defensive mindset, and the will to win seemed to be missing in the first half as USF seemed lethargic and just content to go through the motions. USF coach Bryan Hodgson addressed the first half play in his post-game press conference. “I just thought our defensive intensity was awful,” he said. “Obviously, we scored 48 points in the first half, you know, defensively we gave up 50 to that team, and that just was not great.”
This was one of the worst halves of basketball USF has had this season. How bad was the defense for USF in the first half? UTSA was averaging 68.2 PPG and put 50 on USF in the first half alone. At the half, Brent Moss had 23 points while Jamir Simpson had 14 points for UTSA. Izaiyah Nelson paced the Bulls with 15 points in the first half and CJ Brown added 12.
In the second half, the Bulls came out with the defensive intensity that we have seen so often this season, forcing three UTSA turnovers in the first three minutes to take a 60-54 lead. After that, they never trailed the rest of the night.
Gavin Hightower and Devin Haid both talked about the importance of amping up defensive pressure in the second half.
“That was all the difference in the game. We had to pick it up in the second half. We knew we weren’t playing the way we should have been on defense. So when we went out there, we just had to pick it up.”
Hightower got the Bulls off and running, hitting a three-pointer, building the lead to 63-54. A couple of turnovers later, Josh Omojafo would make a layup to give USF a commanding 67-59 lead. The Bulls would go on to outscore UTSA 21-9 to begin the second half and take back control of the game. The Bulls would stretch the lead to 11 on a Wes Enis three-pointer that put the Bulls up 72-61 at the 13 minute mark.
A Joe Pinion three gave the Bulls an 83-68 lead, but UTSA would not go quietly as the Roadrunners cut the lead to 83-74 with 8:18 to play in the game. The Bulls would then extend the lead to 93-75 on a Nelson slam dunk off a missed free throw, and USF was well on its way to its 15th win of the season.
USF scored 60 points in the paint, and Coach Hodgson said it’s because they adjusted their game plan a bit for UTSA.
“We talked about putting pressure on the rim, right? The recipe for us to win this game wasn’t gonna be to come out and jack a bunch of 3’s and shoot our way into playing, well, right? So we wanted to come out, put pressure on the rim, and then we felt that would open up the floor for us.”
The Bulls hit the 100-point mark for the sixth time this season on a Devin Haid layup to put the Bulls up 101-84 with 2:52 to play. The teams would exchange baskets the rest of the way as the Bulls pulled away to win it in the second half, 109-88. This is the second-highest point total of the season for USF behind the 111 they laid on GA College back in December. USF has won all four meetings all-time against UTSA.
The Bulls are now 15-7 overall and 7-3 in conference play. UTSA has now lost 15 games in a row and remains winless in conference play at 0-10, and 4-18 overall. The Roadrunners last won a game back on November 25th against Georgia Southern.
This marks the fourth time in program history that the Bulls have a 7-3 conference record, matching the starts in 2000-01 and in 1989-90.
A spot for first place in the conference will be in play on Sunday afternoon at home as the Bulls face first-place Tulsa. Tulsa is 8-2 in the conference while USF and Charlotte are both 7-3. Because of the Super Bowl later in the day, tip-off is set for noon on Sunday afternoon at the Yuengling Center.
Other Bulls News and Notes
-The Bulls hit their average of 89.5 PPG, good for 10th in the NCAA. Should the Bulls maintain that pace, they would become the all-time leading scoring team in USF history.
-South Florida has scored 90 points in 13 different games this season, most in the American Conference, and third most in the NCAA.
-USF is averaging 45 PPG in the second half, second best in the conference. The last time the Bulls averaged 40 points in the second half was the 2001-02 season when USF averaged 41.2 PPG in the second half.