By Robbie Lastella
TAMPA, FL.- USF defended home court, and took firm control of the AAC, defeating state rival FAU in front of a hyped fanbase, 90-86. USF led for over 37 minutes of this game and held on to win despite a ferocious 2nd half comeback effort from FAU and 23 points from Vlad Goldin and 20 from Johnell Davis. Selton Miguel scored 23, and Chris Youngblood scored 25, but it was a team effort from USF that helped them come out with this one, finishing with 8 Bulls cracking the score column.
“We are proud of our guys’ effort in the second half, we battled and showed a competitive spirit. Credit to South Florida, their Guard play is phenomenal. Youngblood and Miguel made tough shot after tough shot. We fouled too many jump shooters and got beat on the defensive boards, that’s usually the recipe for defeating us,” Coach Dusty May said after the game.
USF was backed by the first sellout ever in Yuengling Center, charting a record attendance of 10,659. Between the energy of the fans, and a boatload of preparation, Coach Amir Abdur-Rahim’s guys stepped up to the challenge and took down FAU.
“As always, all praise to the most high. To be able to come out here and coach these group of guys in that environment with that support is special, I don’t take it for granted. I try to soak up every minute of it, it was hard because I was trying to coach too. I say it all the time these guys are a byproduct of each other, I’m just a good coach because we have good players that trust me and believe in what we’re doing. That crowd today was incredible, that So-Flo rodeo they had it jumping. That hearded thunder band was amazing as always. If I’m not mistaken, that thang was sold out to the third level, this ain’t the same south Florida, my brother, it’s not,” Coach Abdur-Rahim said after the game.
The atmosphere inside of The Yuengling Center to start this one was something unseen at USF in almost 20 years. The Bulls matched that energy on the court to start, as they started out 5/9 from the field assisting on 4 of those FGS and jumped out to a 13-3 lead with 14:53 to play. FAU started off ice cold, going 2 for their first 8 and turning it over twice in the first 5 minutes of play.
FAU got rolling slightly following the first media timeout, as Alijah Martin hit a corner triple and Gaffeny scored on a drive to the lane to ignite a 5-0 run and quickly cut the lead to 13-9 and put FAU right back in the ballgame.
USF wasn’t letting FAU back in yet, as they responded to that with a 7-0 run, and quickly jumped back up 20-9 with 11:38 to play. Chris Youngblood was red hot early; he was 4 of 5 from the field and had 13 points through the first 13 minutes to help the Bulls ignite their early offense. After the game Coach Abdur-Rahim talked about how USF was able to prepare themselves to come out of the gates in such a strong manner.
“It’s preparation and sharing the ball. We won that game because we had 12 assists on 27 made baskets, but we only turned it over 8 times. When you can get shots at the basket with a really talented group of guys that work hard, things are going to go pretty good because they earned the right to not only play in that game, but make those shots. We couldn’t have asked for a better start, but I thought defensively is where we set the tone. Where FAU makes you look really bad is in transition, and we put a big emphasis on transition defense,” Coach Abdur-Rahim said after the game,
USF was able to hold a double-digit lead for the Majority of the first half and was able to keep Johnell Davis quiet until the very end of the half. Davis broke his 0/4 slump, with back-to-back layups including an and-1 to make it 36-26 Bulls with 3:55 to play in the first half.
Selton Miguel took over for USF following that stretch, outscoring FAU 8-2 on his own at one point, and hurting FAU with a barrage of triples. He hit a triple with 2:12 to play to put USF up 46-29 and force FAU into a late timeout. After the game, Miguel spoke with the media about his mindset going into today’s game.
“I just see the rim. When I see the rim it doesn’t matter who puts their hands up. My teammates trust me, and give me the ball and they know how good I am in 1 on 1 situations so they trust me and that’s what happened,” Miguel said.
Vlad was able to get to the line with 35 seconds left and converted, making it 46-31, which was the score going into half. Alijah Martin had 13 for FAU at the half, but outside of that the Owls offense was struggling, compared to USF who had Miguel with 16 and Youngblood with 15.
The Second half did not start in FAUs favor, as USF started with 2 free throws and ball because of a flagrant on Vlad Goldin that occurred at the end of the first half. The Bulls turned that into a 5-0 run and were quickly up 20, 51-31, only 10 seconds into the half.
USF continued pouring it on, as a 6-0 run ended by a Jose Placer jumper made it 61-37 just 3 minutes into the half, and left FAU reeling. Considering USF almost went up 30, and eventually only led by 2, it would have been easy to enter full on collapse mode; however, after the game Chase Youngblood said it was the team’s experience that helped them preserve and Miguel agreed.
“We came out hot. Immature teams, inexperienced teams, they just lay down and start doing anything, that’s how you lose leads quick. They did come back, but our experience and perseverance helped us gut out this win,” Youngblood said. “We have guys that have been through it college wise, they came together and understood the game. Sometimes when we’re up we’ll want to rest, we never rest. Even though they’re a good team they kept fighting, we never rest,” Miguel followed up.
Early in the second half FAU was unable to make a dent in the large Bulls lead, as for each FAU basket there was a USF basket to match. The Bulls were getting a balanced attack, getting buckets from 8 different players and it helped them not let the lead dip below 20 for the first 10 minutes of the second half.
FAU got going with a little over with 7 minutes to play, as they went on a 11-0 run. FAU cut the deficit to 70-56 following a Jalen Gaffney steal and triple and with 7:29 to play momentum began to shift.
FAU turned that into a 15-0 total run, and following a Vlad Goldin jam it was 73-63, and the Owls were right back in the ball game with 6:25 to play. FAU wasn’t done following that, as over the final 6 minutes they began to chip the lead down even more. FAU was running a hard press which helped ignite the 15-0 run, and after the game Dusty May spoke on that press and how the Owls could use it in games going forward.
“It’s situational. They wanted to shorten the game, and we wanted to lengthen the game so we were fine giving up some easy baskets. When we’re at the best we trust our half court defense a lot more than we have lately, and that’s something- going down this stretch we’re going to have to defend much better, especially on the ball,” Coach Dusty May said after the game.
With 4:29 to play, Nick Boyd hit a triple and Jalen Gaffney was fouled while the shot went up. It resulted in the rare 5-point play, and FAU had a firm hold on momentum and the lead was down to 7 for USF, 79-72.
USF was continuing to battle down the stretch, but the FAU offense was ignited, and the press was stymieing the red-hot Bulls. The Owls went on a 9-2 run over the final 2 minutes and following a Johnell Davis triple with 24 seconds to go it was a 1-point game, 87-86.
USF held down the final 2 minutes, and FAU was unable to pull ahead of the bulls at home. The Owls wanted a 2 on what ended up being their last true possession down 3, but missed, and USF was able to hit 1 out of 2 free throws, to make it 90-86 with only a few seconds remaining, which ended up being the final score. After the game, Coach Abdur-Rahim said the consistent and connected team found the way to win.
“The consistent and connected team found a way to win. These guys live in a very individualistic society…and as I said time and time again they have chosen to be a team,” Coach Abdur-Rahim said after the game.
The win gave USF a firm hold on the conference lead at 2 games, and displayed a true show of determination, especially over the final minutes. For FAU, although it was a tough loss, as usual there are learning opportunities and positives in every situation and this game is no different according to Coach May.
“We have said from day one, we can lose with this group. We’re not always going to play well, but we showed great fight and great resolve. I thought we applied intelligent pressure for the most part. They got late-clock a few times, and we fouled, I think we fouled 5 jump shooters. We let Miguel get downhill to his right hand a few times, I wish we had those possessions back. Overall, I thought our guys played with more force, I thought Vlad was extremely physical in the paint which opened up something extremely unique for us. We settled in and found the right rotations in the second half. I thought that Brennen Lorient brought a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the game. It was a great college basketball game, I wish I had 5 more minutes,” May said after the game.
FAU moved to 3rd place in the conference, now trailing USF by 2 games, and Charlotte by 1 game. The Owls will have a few days off before taking on SMU at home Thursday evening in another important AAC matchup. USF stands atop the conference and will also have a few days off before hitting the road to play UTSA on Wednesday.
