USF wins outright American Conference basketball title by stopping Memphis

When the college basketball calendar turns to March, results are the only things that matter. And on Thursday night, USF got the result it wanted by defeating Memphis 96-89 to clinch its second outright American Conference championship in three years.

But after blowing out the Tigers recently in Tampa, the Bulls had to work right down to the final buzzer to secure this win. They were dealing with adversity all night. Guard CJ Brown was battling the flu but still gutted it out for 20 minutes and scored eight points with three assists.

Forward Daimion Collins fouled out, forward Izaiyah Nelson -- likely the conference MVP -- was limited to 17 minutes because of foul trouble. Joseph Pinion, usually one of USF's leading scorers, was held to zero points, but did grab eight rebounds.

"That was an ugly, ugly basketball game. Got a little goofy there down the stretch. We weren't very disciplined tonight," Bulls coach Bryan Hodgson said on the post-game radio show.

"But you know what? It's really hard to win college basketball games and it's even harder to win them on the road."

Guard Wes Enis stepped up big time for the Bulls, scoring 29 points, including 9-of-9 from the free throw line. He played all 40 minutes.

Josh Omojafo had 21 points, Isaiah Jones had 14, and freshman Gavin Hightower added 11.

"CJ hasn't practiced at all this week. And so for him to come in and even just play the 20 minutes that he did, and at eight points, three assists, to one turnover, you know, proud of CJ," Hodgson said.

"I'm really happy for Isaiah Jones. This is his hometown. He grew up here, had 14 (points) and five (rebounds) , and plus-9 for us, which was phenomenal."

USF also reached another program milestone. For the first time in the 44-game history of this series, the Bulls recorded a second consecutive win over Memphis.

The Bulls, now 22-8 overall, have won eight in a row and 11 of their last 12. It was also their ninth road victory of the season. But against a struggling Memphis team playing with a nothing-to-lose chip on its shoulder, the Bulls really had to grind it out.

"I'm just gonna be honest. I thought they got a little dirty there down the stretch. There could have been 15 more (fouls) called," Hodgson said.

"I just told our guys to stay the course and play our game. That's a good officiating crew; let them handle their business. We stepped up, and made some tough plays down the stretch when we needed to. I'm just proud of our guys' effort and happy to win this thing outright. We did not want to share it."

The Bulls wrap up the regular season on Sunday at 2 p.m. against Charlotte, and then their focus turns to the conference tournament next week in Birmingham. USF has a bye to the tournament semifinals.

The win over Memphis might not have looked pretty, but it showed how the Bulls can overcome adversity and prevail.

"We were just banged up. We had a Daimion Collins with a rolled ankle, Joe Pinion with a bone bruise. 
CJ wasn't around with the flu. We had another guy that had food poisoning, and it was all in the same time," Hodgson said.

"We had a day that we literally couldn't practice. So to come in here after all that, weather the storm and get a win is huge."