Bulls fall, 61-50, to the Jackrabbits despite 15 points and 12 rebounds from Bethy Mununga
Game Details
South Dakota State 61, 21/20 USF 50
USF (5-2), South Dakota State (4-2)
Thursday, Nov. 28, 2019 | 11 a.m.
Cancun, Mexico | Hard Rock Riviera Maya Hotel Convention Center
CANCUN, Mexico (Nov. 28, 2019) – The No. 21/20 University of South Florida women’s basketball team got 15 points and a career-high tying 12 rebounds from Bethy Mununga (Zellik, Belgium), but that wasn’t enough as the Bulls dropped a 61-50 decision to South Dakota State in the first game of the 2019 Cancun Challenge at the Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya Thursday morning. The loss drops the Bulls to 5-2 on the year while South Dakota State improves to 4-2.
The Jackrabbits, who advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 last year before falling to third-seeded Oregon by 10, led for most of the contest before Mununga gave USF its first lead of the game, 33-32, with two free throws midway through the third quarter. The Bulls eventually took a two-point advantage into the final period, 40-38.
Elena Tsineke (Thessaloniki, Greece) gave USF its largest lead of the game, 42-38, to start the fourth quarter on a driving layup, and the Bulls held the upper hand until South Dakota State regained the lead with just under five minutes left to play, 48-46. The Jackrabbits closed out the game on a 13-4 run, and outscored the Bulls 23-10 in the fourth quarter, en route to the win.
Kristyna Brabencova (Brno, Czech Republic) scored eight points for USF while Elisa Pinzan (Murano, Italy) added seven points, three steals and two assists.
Score By Quarters
1 2 3 4 F
USF 16 13 11 10 50
SDSU 19 11 8 23 61
Quotable
“We talked about coming here and getting three wins. South Dakota State is a very good basketball team and for us to play well, we have to play team basketball, and today, for one reason or another, the extra pass wasn’t there. It’s all about accountability and doing your job, and we didn’t do that today. We’ve got to get better and we have to learn from it. We have a lot of young guys that we are leaning on and that are playing minutes, but the veterans know better. These are three NCAA Tournament games here, and we’re up four in the fourth quarter and they hit a three, and that’s when things started to break down.” – USF head coach Jose Fernandez on the Bulls loss to South Dakota State.
Key Stats
23-10 – With the Bulls leading by four at the beginning of the fourth quarter, South Dakota State proceeded to outscore USF, 23-10, in the final period.
Notable
- Thursday’s game between South Dakota State and USF was the first ever meeting between the two schools.
Up Next
USF now faces in-state foe Florida Gulf Coast on Friday at 1:30 p.m. The Bulls will close out the event on Saturday at 11 a.m. when their battle 2019 NCAA national runner-up Notre Dame.
Following Cancun, the Bulls will return home for two-straight games against Alabama State on Dec. 6 (5:30 p.m.) and Idaho on Dec. 16 (1 p.m.).
Reserve your seats at USFBullsTix.com.
