USF dominates the boards in win over UCF

by Gary Shelton on January 15, 2018 · 0 comments

in Basketball, College Sports in Florida, general, USF

Jespersen beats her defender down the floor./CARMEN MANDATO

Jespersen beats her defender down the floor./CARMEN MANDATO

Monday, 2 a.m.

The USF women's basketball team improved its record to 10 games over .500 Sunday, beating their rival UCF.

The Bulls used a huge rebounding margin to win a 62-45 game against the Knights. USF had 48 rebounds, including 17 offensive boards. USF allowed the Knights to succeed on only 34 percent of their shots from the floor.

"Our players defended," said USF coach Jose Fernandez. "We played really good team defense and held them to one shot and out. Second half wasn’t a very

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Ferriera drives to the basket./CARMEN MANDATO

Ferriera drives to the basket./CARMEN MANDATO

pretty basketball game either way, but again, we held them to 14 points in the third quarter.

“We wanted to defend the dribble, keep them in front of us and do a great job on the glass.”

Laska tries a three-pointer for USF./CARMEN MANDATO

Laska tries a three-pointer for USF./CARMEN MANDATO

USF also had eight steals, it's second-most of the season, and scored 20 points off of turnovers.

USF, 14-4 overall and 4-1 in the American Athletic Conference, got 16 points from Katija Laksa. Laia Flores had 14 and Maria Jespersen had 13. Flores and Jespersen each had seven rebounds.

Over the final 5:23 of the second quarter, the Bulls outscored the Knights 17-2 and ended the half on an 11-0 run. USF outscored  UCF 21-6 in the second quarter and took a 34-14 lead into the locker room.

USF struggled early in the third quarter and went scoreless for nearly six minutes before Jespersen ended the drought with a traditional three-point play to give the Bulls a 40-19 lead.

“It feels really good,” Jespersen told the Stampede. “We waited a year to play this game again and we really prepared in practice with some different things.”

As a team, the Bulls shot just 27% (6-of-22) from three-point range and only 38 percent  from the floor.

USF travels to Memphis Wednesday night. The game begins at 8 p.m.

Fernandez led his team to its 14th win of the year./CARMEN MANDATO

Fernandez led his team to its 14th win of the year./CARMEN MANDATO

 

 

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