Fast starts haven't been a characteristic of the USF women's basketball team, and that was the case again Saturday at the Yuengling Center. After one quarter, the Bulls trailed Wichita State by a point in a game USF was expected to dominate.
Often, a development like that will cause the head coach to signal for a time out or two, or perhaps deliver a stern "what the heck is going on here" lecture to the troops.
Instead, Bulls interim coach Michele Woods-Baxter had a different strategy. She let the Bulls straighten things out themselves -- which is exactly what they did. After that sketchy beginning, USF pulled away for a 75-53 win, its fifth in a row. The Bulls improved to 12-7 overall and 5-1 in the American Conference.
"It just speaks to our veteran group," USF guard Katie Davidson said. "Sometimes during a time out she lets us talk because sometimes,we see it on the court, obviously."
Another one in the W column 🤝 pic.twitter.com/poLHso8y69
— USF Women's Basketball (@USFWBB) January 18, 2026
Guard Edyn Battle added, "I think the first quarter, we've kind of struggled all year. We just know we gotta stay with it."
Woods-Baxter was asked if USF's response was the sign of a mature team.
"Yeah, it is, because we have to get through those and learn from our mistakes,," she said.
.Davidson and Battle were the architects of the eventual rout. Davidson had a team-high 24 points -- her third game with 20 or more points in USF's last four games. Battle had 14 points and 10 assists.
The margin of the win enabled Woods-Baxter to go deep into her bench. Eleven USF players saw court time.
"We did a very good job offensively, once we settled in and stopped settling for threes a little bit in that first half, and started moving the ball around.," she said.
"We ended up shooting the ball pretty well, and we had 21 assists, and I'm very proud of, the way we do that.