The USF women’s basketballteam dropped to 4-4 in the Big East with a 77-62 loss atNo. 3 Connecticut on Saturday.

The Bulls were led by center Caitlin Rowe, who scored acareer-high 20 points, including a trio of 3-pointers in the loss.

USF played tough against the defending national championHuskies and trailed 36-33 athalftime, their smallest halftime deficit ever against Connecticut.

“We were down three at the half and we gave ourselves a chance,” coach Jose Fernandez toldgousfbulls.com. “We’re a goodbasketball team.”

The Huskies pulled away with a 17-5 second-half run to moveto 8-1 in the conference.

Men’s tennis drops a pair

The Bulls dropped a pair of matches at the ITA KickoffWeekend in Los Angeles, losing to North Carolina-Wilmington onSaturday and Nevada-Las Vegas onSunday to fall to 0-3 on the season.

USF lost 4-2 to the Seahawks on Saturday, losing the doubles point and three singles matches. Juan Carlos Acuna Gerard and Lucas Marin-Salcedo won their singles matches, with Yannick Yoshizawa’s match suspended at 6-5 in thethird set.

The Bulls won the doublespoint against the Rebels onSunday, but struggled in singlesplay, losing 5-2 in theconsolation match.

Bulls break records

Running at the IndianaUniversity Relays, USF’s Rachael James set a new school record of 55.06 in the 400-meter dash, breaking Marilyn Payton’s record of 55.12 set in 1998.

James wasn’t the only USFathlete to break a school record at the meet, with Shaniel Chambers running the 600-meter dash in 1:31.68.