USF men's basketball falls in a wild shootout at Oklahoma State

In a game of wild back-and-forth swings, the USF men's basketball team fell short of capturing a big road win at undefeated Oklahoma State on Wednesday. The Cowboys prevailed 103-95 after 40 minutes of basketball played at a breakneck speed.

After falling behind by nine points six minutes into the game, USF went on a 32-10 blitz to lead by 13 with 6:18 to go in the half. The lead was chopped to one point by the break, however, and the Cowboys went ahead for good early in the second half, although the Bulls kept it close.

"We lost the rebounding battle in the second half. We were kicking their butt on the glass in the first half, but they obviously fixed it at half," Bulls coach Bryan Hodgson said on the post-game radio show.

"They had 44 points in the paint, 10 second-chance points, and we let some of their shooters get going in the second half, which is what we talked about; our close outs were bad. We've just got to do a better job."

CJ Brown led USF with 24 points and 10 assists for his first double-double of the season. Joseph Pinion continued his hot shooting with 20 points, including six 3-pointers.

"CJ played really well. He sat on the bench with some foul trouble there in the first half, and credit to him, he played with two fouls, played with three fouls, and it was pretty mature through that stretch," Hodgson said. :CJ has been really, really good. and gets better every game,"

Hodgson promised a rapid-fire brand of basketball when he took the job last spring and the Bulls are backing up that claim. In five games they have scored 498 points -- the most ever for a five-game span in program history. USF has scored at least 95 points in each game and has broken the century mark three times.

However, Hodgson lamented some defensive lapses, which has been an issue at times early in this season.

"I just feel like we had some bonehead plays with hands down on closeouts and, you know, just some lazy switches, missed talk and communication errors on the defensive stuff,," he said. "We want to win games like this.

The Bulls are off until Wednesday, November 26, when they play VCU at 2:30 p.m. in the first of three games in three days at the Battle 4 Atlantis. The game will be televised on ESPN2.