Win one, lose one.
That’s how it went in the second game of the season for both the USF men’s and women’s basketball teams.
On Friday at the Yuengling Center, the USF women rallied in the second half to overhaul Long Island 79-72.
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USF trailed by three entering the fourth quarter but outscored the Sharks 22-12 in the final 10 minutes to secure its second win in as many games.
Graduate guard Edyn Battle led all scorers for the Bulls with 23 points, while graduate guard Katie Davidson added 18.
“I thought the effort was there. I think we’ve just got to be a little bit smarter,” interim head coach Michele Woods-Baxter said. “We didn’t make the best decisions a lot of the times, but give LIU credit. They shot the lights out. They pretty much made everything they threw up, but I thought we adjusted and we came back and had a great fourth quarter.”
The Sharks shot 69.2 percent in the first quarter, including five three-pointers. However, the Bulls clamped down in the fourth quarter and held LIU to 4-of-20 from the field for 20 percent.
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USF returns to action on November 13 in Las Vegas against Fairfield. Following that game, the Bull,s stay in Vegas to play UCLA on November 15. The Bruins were a Final Four participant in 2025.
Meanwhile, the USF Men fell to 1-1 on Saturday after dropping a contentious 99-95 decision to the George Washington Revolutionaries at the Basketball Hall of FameTipoff Classic in Uncasville, Conn.
Both head coaches had issues with the officiating, which was overzealous on both sides. There were 52 fouls called in the game — 27 against USF. That led to a combined 78 free throws.
Two items on the boxscore highlights why the Bulls dropped this game.
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They were only 6-of-33 on 3-point attempts, and they were only 13-of-37 from the field (35 percent) in the first half. That helped the Revolutionaries overcome an early 7-point lead by the Bulls and to take a four-point lead at the break.
That stretched to a 12-point lead for George Washington with 12:12 to play, It was still a 10-point advantage for the Revolutionaries with 2:57 to play but USF’s frenetic defensive pressure got the Bulls to within one point.
That was as close as they got, however, as George Washington held on for the win.
USF will be back at the Yuengling Center on Wednesday against Coppin State.
This article was originally published on www.greengoldandbold.com as USF basketball: Men drop a wild one, Women rally for second win.
