USF men's first home game had a little of everything: a fight, ejections, and a win

We figured it wouldn’t be much of a game, and we figured correctly. The USF men’s basketball team rolled to a blowout win 85-69 over Arkansas Pine Bluff for the Bulls' first win of the season.

On a night when USF raised a banner to celebrate its first regular-season American Conference Championship, the Bulls wasted little time taking charge. They led 50-34 by halftime against the overmatched visitors, and the second half was academic – albeit a bit ragged.

OK,  maybe a lot ragged. That was because of bench-clearing fracas that changed the tempo of the game.

In the first half,  Pine Bluff guard Zach Reinhart shoved USF forward De’Ante Green after a play along the sidelines. Emotion took over, and a scuffle ensued. USF’s CJ Brown and Jimmie Williams received ejections for leaving the bench, while Reinhart was tossed for a flagrant foul.

With 6-11 center Jamille Reynolds already sitting out because of what interim head coach Ben Fletcher called "a coach’s decision why he didn’t play tonight,” the Bulls were short-handed.

That was still more than enough to send Pine Bluff to its third loss in four games.

“When the play happened, when the guys got ejected, I thought that that that challenged the game, right? So now I'm having lineup troubles because two backups now are off the floor,” Fletcher said.

“So I had a bunch of guys playing in positions that they normally don't play in. So we normally have a good 10-man rotation. Well, now that's different. So now I'm playing with seven or eight, so now we got guys out of position. They don't know the plays from different positions because they haven't played those positions.”

It also led to excess playing time for Jayden Reid, Kobe Knox, and Kasen Jennings -- each of whom logged more than 30 minutes playing time. Fletcher said he wants to keep them at around 25 minutes.

It was Fletcher’s first win as the interim head coach after opening the season with losses to Florida and Charleston Southern.

“I think basketball is a game of runs. I feel like, towards the end, we let it slip a little bit, but that's something that we're gonna work on in the upcoming practice,” Green said.

The game drew 4,404 fans, about half of which were USF students sitting in the newly named Amir Abdur-Rahim student section wearing SoFlo Rodeo shirts. Fletcher and his players gave them a shout-out for creating a raucous atmosphere.

“Man, did they show up tonight,” Fletcher said. “Those guys have done an awesome job of just elevating our atmosphere. It’s so great to come out of that tunnel and see that many students here on the first night.”

The Bulls will host West Georgia on Friday.