The USF men’s basketball team was cruising Tuesday night, leading visiting Stetson by 18 points in the second half when … kaboom!
The Hatters, 1-6 entering the game, made basket after basket while the Bulls made mistake after mistake. The lead began to shrink, continued to shrink, as the crowd at the Yuengling Center began to fret — were the Bulls going to blow this?
Almost, but not quite. A breeze turned into a cuticle-chewing 74-72 win for USF.
A win, yes. But it left questions about what this USF team really is.
“I wish we could have finished the game the right way, you know, but it's another learning opportunity for this group to learn how to close out games when you got a big lead like that,” interim head coach Ben Fletcher said.
Asked if he thought this was a glass-half-full or a glass-half-empty feeling, Fletcher replied, “Both.”
But, he added, ‘this, both, both but, but like I always say, man, it's, it's easier to teach from a win that it is from a loss.”
Jayden Reid continued his outstanding play for USF, scoring 23 points and dishing eight assists.
After a sluggish first half, the Bulls appeared ready to run the Hatters out of the gym, taking a 68-50 lead with just 6:42 remaining. However, Stetson went on a 15-2 run and pulled within 70-65 with 48 seconds left.
The Hatters got it as close as two points with four seconds to go before the Bulls held on.
USF now heads to Chicago on Saturday to face Loyola. The Ramblers were 6-0 heading into Tuesday’s game against Eastern Michigan