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USF’s Allen Jr.’s 28 Not Enough in Loss at East Carolina

Senior Corey Allen Jr. scored 25 of his game-high 28 points in the second half, but it wasn’t enough as the USF men’s basketball team fell at East Carolina 73-60 on Saturday.

The Bulls (8-20, 2-13) made five of their first seven field goals to start the game and took a 12-5 lead. The Pirates (12-15, 5-9) responded by scoring the next nine points and outscored USF 30-13 the remainder of the half to take a 35-25 lead at the break. USF outshot ECU 52.9 percent to 44.0 percent in the first half, but committed 11 turnovers which led to 20 ECU points.

“In the first half, there was a span of us compounding errors with bad shots, not posting up and not boxing out,” said USF head coach Orlando Antigua. “Offensively, I thought we were in a nice groove and then we just stopped.”

The Bulls found their groove in the first half thanks to freshman Troy Holston Jr. (Queens, N.Y.) who scored eight of his 13 points in the first six minutes of the game.

“Troy got it going in the first half and we had a nice rhythm going,” Antigua said. “Then he got popped in the nose and it totally changed his aggressiveness. I told him that this team needs him to stay aggressive. It doesn’t matter if he gets popped in the nose, that’s part of it. We’ve got to play tougher than that.”

USF took care of the ball in the second half, committing just three turnovers, but shot 37.7 percent from the field and allowed ECU to shoot 53.3 percent. After falling behind by 22 points with just under 10 minutes to play, the Bulls tried to get back in the game with aggressive defense, fouling (12 in the final five minutes) and the shooting touch of Allen Jr. However, the Pirates went 15-of-21 from the free throw line in the final five minutes, outdoing Allen Jr.’s 11 points over that length of time.

For the game, ECU was 28-of-36 (77.8 percent) from the free throw line while USF was 12-of-22 (54.5 percent).

“You’ve got to give East Carolina credit,” Antigua said. “They made the plays. We just didn’t compete for 40 minutes like we wanted to.”

Allen Jr. added a game-high eight rebounds which matched his season-high (UAB). His 28 points came on 8-of-17 shooting including 4-of-9 from 3-point range. He made all eight of his free throw attempts.

“We made it into a scrappy game at the end and that fits Corey’s style because then we were getting up and down the floor,” Antigua said.

Freshman Bo Zeigler (Detroit) had an efficient outing as he scored nine points on 4-of-6 shooting.

East Carolina was led by freshman B.J. Tyson and his 19 points. The Pirates won their 11th home game of the season.

The Bulls will next be in action on Sunday, March 1 at Houston at 3 p.m. ET.