Marquette loss drops USF to 1-5 in Big East
Given a week of rest after an impressive win at Seton Hall, USF's women's basketball team reverted to many of the problems that led to the Bulls' 0-4 start as USF took a tough home loss to Marquette, 79-66, on Saturday night in the Sun Dome.
The Bulls shot 28.8 percent from the field and committed 24 turnovers, going from tied at halftime to trailing by as many as 19. Marquette (11-8, 3-3) is the kind of league opponent the Bulls (11-8, 1-5) need to beat at home if they aspire to kind of postseason play. Amazingly, even with the loss, there are four other Big East teams with only one league win, so the Bulls are still within a tiebreaker of making the cut for the conference tournament. Then again, they still have Connecticut, Rutgers, Notre Dame, DePaul and Pittsburgh on the schedule.
Guards Jazmine Sepulveda and Shantia Grace led the Bulls with 14 and 13 points, respectively, but did so on 8-for-25 shooting, with Grace fouling out after playing only 26 minutes. That's still a strong night, relatively speaking -- fellow guards Daiane Packer and Gianna Messina were a combined 1-for-14 with eight turnovers. USF outrebounded Marquette 51-43, but part of that was being able to get offensive boards on 25 of their own missed shots. Guard Krystal Ellis led Marquette with 30 points on 13-for-27 shooting.
Times sportswriter Greg Auman, who covers USF, will post news and thoughts on the Bulletin and we invite your participation in the comments area.
Rutgers men beat Pitt tonight.
That makes us in dead last place in the Big East.
Great job boys. Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Ari Hinkelberger | January 26, 2008 at 11:19 PM
I hope we get Brumbaugh and Flowers... we will still need another quality big man but I Saw Brumbaugh play saturday and hes got skills... he needs to work on his emotions during the game but he can shoot, pass, and dribble and hes 6'10! If we get both of them well be a big man away from being a serious BE Contender...
Posted by: JP | January 27, 2008 at 04:36 AM
Well USF was picked to finish dead last in the Big East by media and coaches I believe.Honestly until the AD learns how to raise money and invest it into men's athletics USF will continue to be the BE doormat.
Heath doesn't like his former AD at Arkansas, but the old guy sure knew how to raise the money and improve athletics.Heath should tell Woolard to call his old boss and have him explain how to invest money into the athletic department.
Posted by: The Champ | January 27, 2008 at 09:21 AM