Next game: USF (15-8, 8-2) at Temple (12-9, 6-4)
When: Saturday, February 8, 2 p.m.
Media: ESPN+ and Bulls Unlimited
You could have been excused for thinking the regular season was slipping away from the USF women’s basketball team Saturday. For much of the first half, the Bulls were out-played in a game by North Texas in a game USF absolutely had to win.
But the Bulls, looking out of sorts and down by 12 points at home, overcame adversity and perhaps some overly zealous officials whistles to secure a critical American Athletic Conference victory 65-58 at the Yuengling Center.
It moved USF into a second-place tie in the AAC, one game behind league-leading UTSA, which rallied from 14 points down to defeat Temple on Saturday. But, the game threatened to be overshadowed by a whistle-happy officiating crew.
“Two good teams played today, and I thought, you know, so many whistles. It was, it was not good. It's really, really disappointing, you know, to have two teams play the way that they did, and for that game to be played that way,” Bulls coach Jose Fernandez said on his postgame radio show.
He did not belabor the point, noting, "I don't want to get fined."
The Bulls had two players foul out – L'or Mputu (in only 17 minutes) and Ines Piper (in just 13 minutes). North Texas lost Desiree Wooten. Many of the fouls looked like, shall we say, the ticky-tack variety.
But in a game where even a little bit of contact on both sides seemed to generate a whistle, the Bulls maintained their focus and prevailed. That avenged a loss last month at North Texas.
After falling behind 24-12 with 8:07 left in the second quarter, the Bulls clawed back within a basket by halftime. A 21-9 run in the third quarter gave USF a 10-point lead headed into the fourth quarter, and although the Mean Green pulled within three points in the final minute, the Bulls had enough cushion to hold on.
“I thought in the third quarter, we really got out and finished in transition. That was a difference,” Fernandez said.
Vittoria Blasigh led USF with 15 points while Mputu had 14 points to go with 10 rebounds.
The Bulls will head to Temple on February 8, again with no margin for error if they hope to finish as the AAC’s regular-season champion and the top seed in the conference tournament.
“Good win. Now we got to get ready to go on the road,” Fernandez said. “Everything that we want and that we can controls id in front of us. We just got to worry about the next 40 minutes, and not worry about what what's going on in the rest of the league.”