It's a double dose of feel good for USF men's and women's basketball teams

If the events of the last week had you wondering if men’s and women’s basketball at USF was about to crater, what happened Saturday at the Yuengling Center helped ease your mind at least a little bit.

The men looked like they were headed for another dispiriting loss, trailing Tulsa by 10 points with five minutes left. From there, however, the Bulls overwhelmed the visitors and walked – well, floated – off the court with a heart-pumping 63-56 victory.

That set the stage for the women in the double-header at the YC, and they answered the call with a decisive 85-59 rout of Florida Atlantic.

That delighted the announced crowd of 8,636 as both teams broke two-game losing streaks and opened up a can of feel-good at a time when the Bulls needed just that.

“Super, super pumped about this one, man,” men’s interim coach Ben Fletcher said. “For these guys to show the grit that they show, and to lead a charge in a comeback like that was fun to see.”

The men outscored Tulsa 19-2 in the final five minutes to turn what could have been a devastating home-court American Athletic Conference loss into a reason to celebrate. The Bulls improved to 10-8 overall and 3-2 in the AAC.

It looked like there was a lid on the basket for most of the day. The Bulls shot just 35 percent from the floor, including 2-of-18 on 3-pointers. They got the baskets when they needed it most, however.

USF outscored Tulsa 19-2 in the final five minutes as the momentum completely swung the Bulls’ way.

A tip-in by Kobe Knox gave USF the lead with 1:26 to play, and his 3-pointer with 25 seconds left was the dagger.

C.J. Brown had a career-high 16 points to go with four steals.

“The work that these guys been putting in, I thought it came to fruition,” Fletcher said. “On a night where a lot a lot of things weren't going our way, they never hung their head. You guys have heard me say it, and I keep saying it, they're a resilient bunch.”

The women were resilient too.

After a pair of conference losses, including a deflating 62-61 loss to UAB when the Bulls couldn’t put the ball in the ocean, they bounced back strong.

Carla Brito had 14 points and 15 rebounds and Sammie Puisis bounced back from a dreadful shooting night against UAB with a team-high 15 points.

“Good bounce back after, after the UAB loss and the North Texas loss to come back at home and protect our home floor,” head coach Jose Fernandez said.

“I think the biggest thing that we need to do was try and get out and score and transition as much as possible. I thought we did a good job sharing the ball and single digit turnovers. So that was, that was good. I thought Carla Brio had a really, really good game.”

The Bulls now head to Tulane and East Carolina this week before coming home for a huge game against UTSA on January 29. The Roadrunners are 7-0 in AAC play while the Bulls are 5-2.

The men are at Charlotte and East Carolina before returning home against Rice on January 28. They are 3-2 in the conference, behind five one-loss teams.