TAMPA, FEB. 1, 2020 (AP) – Justin Brown and Laquincy Rideau each scored 14 points and combined for 15 rebounds as South Florida beat Central Florida 64-48 on Saturday in the season’s second round of the War on I-4.
Brown (Atlanta) pulled down eight rebounds and Rideau (West Palm Beach, Fla.) grabbed seven boards and six steals for South Florida (10-12, 3-6 American Athletic Conference), which scored 24 points at the free-throw line. Ezacuras Dawson III (Miami) added 12 points.
Collin Smith had 12 points for the Knights (11-10, 2-7), the only player to reach double figures. Dazon Ingram added five points and seven rebounds.
USF used a 22-4 run midway through the first half to turn a four-point deficit in a 14-point lead capped by an old-fashioned three-point play by Rideau. Two free throws from Dawson pushed the lead up to 20 with just over three minutes before halftime.
UCF (11-10, 2-7 American Athletic Conference) scored the next six points to trim the USF lead back to 14, but Rideau took the inbounds pass the length of the court in the final three seconds and banked a shot in at the buzzer to put USF ahead 38-22 at halftime.
A basket and free throw from Smith with six minutes left in the second half brought UCF back within 10 before USF used a 13-4 run over the next four minutes to go ahead 63-44 in the final two minutes.
Quotable
Head coach Brian Gregory’s thoughts on what led to USF’s convincing War on I-4 game victory over UCF:
“They’re a really good defensive team, as we are. We were able to get on a pretty good streak in the first half, and most of it was kind of ignited by our defense. We got out on the break. We got some open-court shots. We were able to attack them before their defense was set. We did a great job on the offensive glass, even though we were smaller than we’ve ever been with Mike (Durr) out today. But that’s about energy, that’s about effort, that’s about toughness on the glass. The big change in the second half, we were not able to get some of the looks we wanted. We missed a couple, little tentative at times, but we got some penetration and we hit a couple threes. But our defense never faltered. We kept getting stop after stop, after stop, after stop. We didn’t shoot well, but they didn’t shoot well from the three in the second half. We forced some turnovers and we controlled enough of the glass to be able to keep that thing at 10-plus points. Then all the sudden, you make a couple baskets and it’s back up to 15. Our guys really showed some mental toughness today as well. We talk about playing really hard and playing with energy, but you also have to have a concentration and a focus. I think you saw that at the free throw line and you saw that in some of our defensive coverages.”
Gregory on the impact the home crowd had on the game and what the victory means for the program:
“There are certain steps you have to take and to do it in front of that crowd, an unbelievable student crowd, unbelievable overall crowd… I always use the term electric, it was really, really good. There are mile markers, and this is a big one for us, to get the win at home against your rival, to break the streak, and give them credit, they had the streak going. To be able to break it in front of all those people that were really, really supporting behind us is great for the program. This could be one of those where you look two or three years down the road and you say, ‘Hey, that was a big turning point in building the program that you have today.’ We need to continue to take those steps.”
Notable
• USF improved to 16-4 since the start of last season when Justin Brown scores in double figures.
• USF held its 10th opponent of the season to fewer than 60 points.
• Laquincy Rideau finished with six steals and moved into fourth place on the AAC career steals list with 157.
• USF improved to 23-18 all-time against UCF.
• USF held UCF to its lowest point total of the season with 48 points.
Key Stats
9.1 – USF limited UCF to 2-for-22 shooting from three-point range and 9.1 percent.
80 – USF made 24 free throws and shot 80.0 percent from the charity stripe.
34 – USF used 34 points off the bench including a perfect 3-for-3 from the field and 4-for-4 from the free throw line by Ezacuras Dawson III.
5 – UCF finished with only five assists and 16 turnovers.
Up Next
USF takes a week off before returning to action with a trip to Memphis to face the Tigers on Feb. 8 at 4 p.m. (EST) FedEx Forum. The game will be televised live on CBS Sports Network.
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About USF Men’s Basketball
The USF men’s basketball team is led by head coach Brian Gregory. On March 22, 2017, Gregory was introduced as the 10th head coach in program history. He previously led programs at Georgia Tech (2011-16) and Dayton (2003-11). Gregory spent nearly a decade as an assistant coach under Michigan State’s Hall of Fame head coach Tom Izzo and helped the Spartans win the 2000 NCAA National Championship. Gregory owns nearly 250 career head coaching wins and six postseason appearances, including the 2010 NIT Championship. In his second season at the helm of the Bulls, Gregory led the team to the best win turnaround in the NCAA, the most single-season wins in school history and the 2019 College Basketball Invitational championship.
USF has retired three numbers in its 47-year history: Chucky Atkins (12), Charlie Bradley (30) and Radenko Dobras (31). The Bulls have earned three NCAA tournament bids, appeared in the NIT eight times and won the 2019 CBI championship.
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