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USF Shows “Valiant Effort” in Loss at Cincinnati
- Updated: February 8, 2015
USF led by as many as four points midway through the second half, but fell at Cincinnati 63-58 on Saturday in front of a near capacity crowd at Fifth Third Arena.
Senior Corey Allen Jr. (St. Louis) scored a game-high 18 points, his fourth consecutive game scoring at least 16 points. He was 8-of-16 from the field and added five rebounds while playing all 40 minutes for the second consecutive game.
Having played its last four games without sophomore forward Chris Perry, USF (7-17, 1-10) was down another man in junior guard Nehemias Morillo, its third-leading scorer at 10.2 points per game. The transfer from Monroe College was ruled out with an illness prior to the game. Stepping up in his absence was freshman guard Troy Holston Jr. (Queens, N.Y.). Holston Jr. finished with a career-high 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field including 4-of-6 from 3-point range while playing 39 minutes.
“What I told the guys was how proud of I was of them for competing,” said head coach Orlando Antigua. “No one pouted or made excuses. Next man steps up, and we have to go out and do a job. That’s what we had, and that’s what we rolled with. They gave us a valiant effort.”
USF trailed 28-12 with 4:42 to play in the first half. However, the Bulls’ defense held the Bearcats (17-6, 8-3) to just one field goal the rest of the period to cut the deficit to 31-20 at halftime.
That momentum carried into the second half for the Bulls. From the 4:42 mark of the first half to midway through the second half, USF went on a 29-8 scoring run and took a 41-37 lead after a Jaleel Cousins (Mobile, Ala.) dunk with 10:49 to play. The run was jumpstarted by consecutive 3-pointers from Holston Jr. at the beginning of the period.
“We changed defenses and tried to give them different looks,” said Antigua on the second half run.
However, the Bearcats came back behind the jump shots of Kevin Johnson who made three consecutive 3-pointers to put Cincinnati out in front 46-43 with just under eight minutes remaining.
A three by Holston Jr. brought the Bulls to within one-point, 51-50, with 2:53 to play. The Bulls shot 60.0 percent from the field in the second half, a season high, and outshot the Bearcats 45.3 percent to 36.7 percent However, that one-point margin was the closest USF would get as the Bearcats made its last three field goals to end the game.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am of these guys,” said Antigua. “They battled after going down, playing on the road and defending the way we did. We shot the ball well in the second half now we just have to put a full game together.”
Cousins finished the game with seven points, seven rebounds and two blocks in 24 minutes off the bench. He stepped up when starting center Ruben Guerrero (Spain) got into foul trouble early in the first half.
USF will next be in action on Wednesday at UCF at 7 p.m. The Bulls are back in the Sun Dome on Saturday, Feb. 14 to host Memphis at noon.
