It looked grim for USF women's basketball against Rice but Puisis came to the rescue

Next game: USF (17-8, 10-2) at FAU (10-15, 2-10)

When: Saturday, February 15, 2 p.m.

Media: ESPN+ and Bulls Unlimited

It was real simple.

The clock was running down and  for the USF women’s basketball team, you could say it was running out. The Bulls trailed Rice by three points and the Owls had the ball under USF’s basket with two seconds left in regulation.

Hopeless, right? It looked that way.

Sometimes you need a little luck, though, and Rice provided that slim last straw for the Bulls to grasp when the Owls’ inbounds pass went awry and out of bounds.

With no timeouts, Mama Dembele’s inbounds pass went to Sammie Puisis who let it fly as the clock ticked to triple zeroes.

Swish!

Puisis’ nothing-but-net final 3-point shot sent the game into overtime, followed by a second and third overtime, but the Bulls finally pulled away from the determined visitors for an 82-77 victory that kept them within one game of American Athletic Conference leader UTSA. The Roadrunners knocked off East Carolina 60-46 Wednesday night.

“Let's keep this short and sweet. I gotta get home,” Bulls coach Jose Fernandez quipped as he entered the interview room to discuss the first triple-overtime game in his 25 years at USF.

The Bulls trailed by 11 points late in the third and were still down by six with 3:56 left in regulation. That set the stage for the frantic final seconds.

After the Owls went ahead 61-58, Puisis missed a pair of three-pointers, and the second one seemed to doom the Bulls when Rice got the rebound.

But given a lifeline by the Owls’ turnover, Puisis didn’t flinch.

“I saw it midair, and I knew it was going in. I knew when she got it in the corner, she had a good look, and her feet were set,” Fernandez  said. “It was there because she was gonna she turned her inside shoulder, and she got her feet square, and the ball was rotating.

“I just walked. I knew it was in, you know, the one that she wanted to take at the end, and she felt it, You could see that was going right where it was supposed to.”

USF’s Carla Brito said, “I couldn't believe it, honestly, but like, I wasn't really surprised, because she's tough. She's really, really good. I'm so glad to have her as my teammate.”

Puisis sort of shrugged when asked about it.

“I had confidence,” she said.

The drama wasn’t over.

USF trailed by three in the first overtime and the third OT was tied with 36 seconds left when – guess who – Puisis buried another 3-pointer with 25 seconds left to finally put the Owls away.

It was an epic evening, perhaps best summed up by Brito when asked if she had ever played in a triple overtime game.

“Never, never,” she said. “I'm pleased. Never again, please. Never again, please, no more of that.”