TicketsBearcats Shut Down by USF
Contact: Geoff Wiswell
1/9/2005
Karen Twehues led the Bearcats with 16 points on Sunday. |
TAMPA, Fla. ? The University of Cincinnati was held to a season-low 17 first-half points en route to a 74-56 loss at USF on Sunday afternoon in the Sun Dome.
The Bearcats (5-9, 0-2 C-USA) were held to 6-of-32 (.188) shooting in the opening stanza as the Bulls (12-4, 2-0 C-USA) shot .640 to take a 37-17 halftime lead.
?They?re very good,? said head coach Laurie Pirtle. ?They have a lot of weapons and a lot of different ways to score. They?re hard to defend.?
Rachael Sheats scored 22 of her game-high 26 points in the first half on 10-of-10 shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds. 2004 C-USA Freshman of the Year Jessica Dickson scored 21 points.
Karen Twehues led the Bearcats with 16 points, making 4-of-10 three-pointers. The rest of the Bearcats were 2-of-12 from behind the arc. Treasure Humphries scored a season-high 11 points and Micah Harvey recorded seven assists.
UC committed a season-low eight turnovers, but was outrebounded by 12. Forty-four of UC?s 56 points were scored off the bench.
The Bearcats found themselves in the hole early, as the Bulls scored the first seven points. UC missed nine of its first 10 shots as USF followed up its initial run with a 9-0 stretch to take an 18-3 lead after eight minutes. The home team made seven of its first 11 shots as Sheats scored nine points.
Four points by Twehues keyed an 8-0 run by UC that cut the margin to seven with 6:28 to go. The Bearcats, however, would score their final basket of the half with 5:16 left as the Bulls scored the next 19 points of the game. UC missed 10 shots in the stretch, six from behind the arc.
The Bearcats shot .448 from the field in the second half and made 6-of-14 three-pointers to raise their shooting percentage for the game to .311. USF stayed hot, shooting .478 from the field and making 13-of-18 free throws.
After the 19-0 run put the Bulls ahead, 43-17, with 17:34 to go, the lead stayed between 22 and 29 points until the final minutes. Sheats scored with nine minutes to go to give USF its largest lead before a 10-2 run narrowed the gap to 22.
UC used a 10-2 run in the final three minutes to produce the final margin. Included in the stretch was a three-pointer by freshman Kristi Brogan, the first field goal of her career.
The loss was the fourth-straight for the Bearcats. They return to play on Wednesday, Jan. 12 when they host North Dakota State at 7 p.m. in Fifth Third Arena.