USF coach Jose Fernandez saw his team take care of a 19-point victory in Cincinnati against the Bearcats on Wednesday night with a 62-43 win.

Among the favorable statistics from the game, Fernandez pointed out one in particular. 

“I think we shot the ball better (than last weekend),” Fernandez said.  “But I was really pleased on how well we rebounded and kept Cincinnati off the glass.  That was key going into today.”

The Bulls (14-11, 9-5) capitalized off the Bearcats low field goal accuracy by out-rebounding the third-best rebounding defense in the American Athletic Conference (AAC) 47-28, and accumulated 36 defensive rebounds.

Those defensive boards allowed USF to dictate the offensive pace against Cincinnati (11-15, 4-11).  The Bulls began to separate from the Bearcats over the course of three minutes early in the first half with an up-tempo 10-0 run.

The Bearcats never got a chance to earn another lead after the first points of the game.  Once the Bulls jumped to a 21-point lead with 18 minutes left in the game, they didn’t allow it to go any lower than 14.

In addition to the 19 points scored off fast breaks, the Bulls displayed an accurate and
balanced half court offense. 

Eight of the 15 players who saw action scored in a 41 percent field goal shooting effort, an improvement from Sunday’s 26 percent effort.  Among those scorers, sophomore guard Courtney Williams led the team with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

Her double-double performance was the first time in nine games she had a double-digit scoring night.

Senior guard Inga Orekhova, who was named to the AAC honor roll on Monday for her 17-point effort against No. 1 UConn, led the three-point attack.  

Nine of her 13 points came from beyond the arc, where she made 50 percent of those shots. 

The Bulls will travel to Philadelphia for a conference game against Temple on Saturday at 2 p.m.