Bulls Look to Extend Win Streak at Temple

[Brad]

USF ATHLETICS

 GoUSFBulls.com

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE: FEB. 5, 2016

 

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Bulls Look to Extend Win Streak at Temple

 

TAMPA, FEB. 5, 2016 – The University of South Florida is in the midst of its longest win streak of the season, and looks to make it five straight wins at Temple Saturday afternoon. The Bulls, currently ranked second in league standings, will face the third ranked Owls at 2 p.m. in the Liacouras Center. The game will air on ESPN3. 

 

The Bulls are coming off their highest margin of victory since Jan. 24, making quick work of Cincinnati Wednesday night. USF won 82-49, its third largest win of the season. The Bulls have held their past four opponents to 50-points or less and averaging 77.2 points, outscoring opponents by 28.5 points per game since their loss at Memphis.  USF is still without its top rebounder, Alisia Jenkins(Statesboro, Ga.) but have steadily improved on glass, setting a new program defensive rebounding single game record with 48 boards Wednesday.  Led by senior Courtney Williams (Folkston, Ga.) with 15 rebounds, the Bulls grabbed a season high 65 rebounds, which ties for fourth in the single game record books.

 

Williams turned in a stellar night in her ninth double-double this season, scoring 28 points en route to reaching 2,000 career points. Williams shot 50 percent from the floor to become just the second player in program history to reach the milestone. The guard now chases Hall of Famer Jessica Dickson (‘07) who ended her career with 2,407 points. Williams is on pace to be the first Bull in program history to reach 2,000 points, 900 rebounds and 300 assists. Williams has 843 career rebounds and 291 career assists. 

 

Senior Shalethia Stringfield (Jacksonville, Fla.) notched her fifth double-digit outing in six games, and has averaged 15.2 points per game. Reigning back-to-back American Athletic Conference Player of the Week Kitija Laksa (Riga, Latvia) turned in her 14^thdouble-digit outing with 11 points in her 16th multi-three point field goal game. The rookie leads the league in three-point field goal percentage (.438) and three-point field goals per game (2.9).

The Owls are led by The American Player of the Week Alliya Butts who powered Temple's offense to a pair of big wins last week, averaging 23.5 points, 4.5 steals, and 3.0 assists per game.  

 

For the year, Butts leads the Owls with 15.8 points per game, while grabbing 62 total steals. Feyonda Fitzgerald is second with 13.8 points per game, averaging a team-high 5.1 assists per game.

 

Through 21 games this season, the Bulls are averaging 75.9 points per game, outscoring opponents by a margin of 15.5, and own a 42 percent shooting percentage as a team.

 

 

Bulls Bites

·      USF’s 65 rebounds Wednesday nightwere the most rebounds recorded by a team in The American this season. The Bulls have increased their rebounding margin to 8.8, after outrebounding Cincinnati by +31, the Bulls highest margin this season. 

·      Rookie forward Kitija Laksa (Riga, Latvia) has been honored as the American Athletic Conference Freshman of the Week for the second consecutive week, the league announced Monday. The selection is Laksa’s second freshman honor, and third of the season. Laksa was named The American Player of the Week Jan. 11.  Laksa and the Bulls are in the midst of a three-game win streak and will look to make it four straight Wednesday at home against Cincinnati. Laksa has averaged 18.4 points per game in league play, and last week averaged 18.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game in a perfect week for No. 20 USF.

·      Courtney Williams (Folkston, Ga.) landed on the Weekly Honor Roll for the sixth time this season, leading the Bulls with a double-double week. The senior averaged 17.5 points and 10.5 rebounds per game, and rounded out her week with four assists, two blocks and three steals. Williams posted her eighth double-double in the Bulls’ win over Houston, collecting 16 points and 13 rebounds. Williams shot 53 percent from the floor added two assists and two blocks. At SMU, Williams led the Bulls with 19 points, and sat out the entire second quarter. The senior scored 15 in the final two periods and shot 33 percent from the floor.

·      The Bulls have assembled ten different starting line-ups this season, and Sunday’s starting-five is very much in the air. Senior rebounding leader Alisia Jenkins (Statesboro, Ga.) will miss at least two weeks of action due to a reoccurring injury.  

·      The Bulls are ranked No. 19 in the Associated Press (AP) Top-25 Poll released Monday and No. 17 in the USA Today Coaches Poll Tuesday. USF has been ranked as highly as No. 15 (AP Poll) and No. 15 (USA Today Coaches Poll) this season; both are the highest rankings in program history. 

·      The Bulls have now appeared in both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches Top-25 polls every week this season, building a streak of 14 consecutive weeks in the polls dating back to last season.

 

 

Around the American 

·      In the latest AP poll, UConn remained at No. 1 and USF moved up to No. 19.

·      Five American games highlight the schedule on Saturday. No. 1 UConn and East Carolina get things started at Gampel Pavilion at 1 p.m. ET(SNY/ESPN). No. 19/17 USF visits the Liacouras Center to face Temple at 2 p.m. ET (ESPN3). Tulane travels to Houston at 3 p.m. ET. Memphis hosts Cincinnati at 3 p.m. ET (ESPN3). SMU welcomes UCF to Moody Coliseum at 3 p.m. ET (ADN). 

 

Temple’s Scout

·      Temple won its third straight game with a 55-35 win over SMU on Wednesday afternoon at the Liacouras Center. The Owls forced 28 turnovers and outscored their opponent 36-14 in the paint. Donnaizha Fountain led the way with 14 points and seven rebounds, while Erica Covile posted her fourth double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

·      The Owls have the third highest scoring offense with 69.2 points per game in The American and the third best scoring defense, holding opponents to 61.5 points per game.

 

Up Next

The Bulls return to Tampa before a two-game road swing Tuesday. USF will host Tulane at 7 p.m. on an American Digital Network production. Tuesday’s game will also feature a T-shirt giveaway.

 

[BAMABULL]

Does anyone know when Jenkins and Ferreira will be back.

[raptorcj]

Quote

For the year, Butts leads the Owls with 15.8 points per game, while grabbing 62 total steals.  

So the Owls lead with their Butts, nice.

[bullsfan27]

Jenkins is back. Coming off the bench so at least she can start to get back into game form. Bulls trail 55-54 6:43 left in game

[206BULL]

Ugly game, way too sloppy with the ball for the ladies. Too many turnovers and too gave up too many offensive boards; including the shot that lost the game. 

 

 

[Sellular1]

Choked the game away.  Too many turnovers and crappy rebounding

[USFBulls12]

2 minutes ago, Sellular1 said:

Choked the game away.  Too many turnovers and crappy rebounding

Yep. Weird how we have Jenkins back down low for some of the game, yet we get outrebounded by a team you really wouldn't expect to outrebound us...you can tell who wanted it more. Another crappy conference road loss to add to the books. We will end up a fringe tournament team if we even get selected this year..what a shame. So much talent but these road losses are killing this team.

[usfgrad84]

Bad loss. Three bad losses and not really any wins that will be considered quality wins yet. 

This is starting to look like we will be a bubble team. If so, it will be pretty dicey if we get in. 

[bullsfan27]

We are really going to have to beat Louisville at their place otherwise we might be a bubble team short of beating upon which i just don't see us doing given we can't beat temple or memphis on the road 

[FlowerPower]

Good news is Jenkins is back, bad news is we keep playing poorly on the road despite all of our talent. Not looking forward to Louisville blowing us out