USF women’s basketball faces a challenging two weeks ahead as it looks to face the American Athletic Conference’s top four teams: UTSA, North Texas, Temple and Rice. 

The next two weeks will be also crucial in determining where it will place in the conference standings. 

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The Bulls (13-8, 6-2 AAC) will play UTSA on Wednesday, and North Texas on Saturday at the Yuengling Center 

USF will play Temple on the road on Feb. 8. Temple is currently in third place in the AAC. 

South Florida will then host last season’s conference winner, Rice on Feb. 12 at the Yuengling Center. 

“I think this four-game stretch over the next two weeks is crucial for us,” coach Jose Fernandez said at a press conference on Tuesday. “And for the conference standings.”

The Bulls will count on their interior, with senior forward L’or Mputu leading the charge against UTSA (17-2, 8-0 AAC). Mputu has felt more comfortable getting fouled, and finishing inside the paint to score for the Bulls, Fernandez said. 

Mputu is averaging 9.5 points per game. She boasts a 63.2% from the field. 

Mputu owns the team’s best field goal percentage. South Florida looks to use these skills against the best team in the conference, UTSA.

“We’re going to have to do a great job interiorly,” Fernandez said. “They got two really good post players, and their guard play is really good. There’s a reason why they’ve won the amount of games that they’ve won.”

USF women’s basketball is not new to playing challenging opponents. South Florida has played the fifth strongest non-conference schedule in the country this season, according to WarrenNoland.com.

The Bulls have beat a highly-touted team this season. On Dec. 21, South Florida defeated Duke, which was ranked No. 9 at the time, in the Yuengling Center 65-56.

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Now, the Bulls will be tested against some of the conference’s best.

The Bulls will look for a more balanced team effort as they prepare. South Florida has been relying on key contributor senior guard Sammie Puisis.

Puisis leads the Bulls in scoring at 14.7 points per game. She has a 94.3 free throw percentage. 

“We gotta make shots,” Fernandez said. “We can’t have one of them have a good night, and the other two not.”

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South Florida looks ahead to position themselves for the conference tournament by pushing through this crucial stretch. 

Winning the AAC conference tournament would give the Bulls an auto-bid into March Madness, a destination the Bulls are eager to get back to.