Bulls blown out at No. 24 UConn
The USF men’s basketball team scored 14 first-half points against UConn on Wednesday — the least since its 2008 game against Wright State.
The Bulls finished with 40 points on Wednesday and narrowly avoided making history, as the Huskies more than doubled the Bulls’ output in an 83-40 win.
USF’s all-time record for lowest points scored in a game was 36 against Marquette on Jan. 30 1997. Against the Huskies, it took a free throw from USF sophomore guard Javontae Hawkins with 1:17 left in the game to push the Bulls to 37 points and past the mark of notoriety.
USF’s struggles began from the opening tip off. The Bulls’ offense was only able to muster a single field goal in the first eight minutes of the game, and by the time they hit their second, they were already down by 10 points.
For the remaining 32 minutes of the game, USF was unable to break UConn’s double-digit lead.
USF (12-13, 3-9) held UConn senior guard Shabazz Napier to only seven points, 10 less than his per game average of 17.7, but this was not due to the USF defense stopping him. The Huskies (19-5, 7-4) didn’t use Napier to handle his typical workload because their lead grew to 21 points with just under eight minutes remaining in the first half.
UConn’s lead was 31 points at the half, 45-14.
Seven UConn players besides Napier scored at least seven points and all 12 players scored in the blowout. Napier and junior guard Ryan Boatright were the main concerns of USF coach Stan Heath coming into the game, he said, but UConn rested its stars while coasting on the lead built in the first half.
Boatright played 20 minutes and Napier played 18, each of which were more than
ten minutes less than their average amount of playing time.
The Bulls will have three days to fix their offensive woes when they host rival UCF in the Sun Dome on Saturday.
USF defeated the Knights in overtime Feb. 5 in the only contest between the two teams this season, but the Bulls will likely need to make more than 12 field goals, as they did on Wednesday, to sweep the Knights.
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