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Bulls Fall Apart Late In Defeat

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By GREGG BECNEL, Tribune correspondent

Published: November 10, 2007

TAMPA - Despite playing without its main cog Friday night, the University of South Florida men's basketball team nearly gave new coach Stan Heath a victory in his Bulls debut.

But with preseason All-Big East center Kentrell Gransberry serving a one-game suspension for playing in a non-sanctioned summer-league game, USF blew an eight-point lead in the final 4 1/2 minutes and fell to Cleveland State, 73-70.

Heath became the fourth Bulls coach to lose in his coaching debut, and the first since Bobby Paschal in 1986.

"We certainly had opportunities to win the game late, up by eight points, but we didn't get the job done," said Heath, who had head coaching stints at Kent State and Arkansas before arriving in Tampa. "I thought in a lot of ways we kind of gave this game to Cleveland State."

Up 67-59 with 4:29 to play, USF watched the Vikings score the next 12 points to go up 71-67. A 3-pointer by Solomon Bozeman got the Bulls within one with 35.1 seconds remaining.

After a CSU miss, Dominique Jones had a chance to put USF in front but missed both free throws with 6.7 seconds remaining.

After the Vikings added two free throws to make it 73-70, Bozeman's long 3-point attempt at the buzzer went off the rim.

"I just missed the shot," said Bozeman, who scored 19 points and was 5-for-7 from 3-point range. "I thought I could've taken a couple of more dribbles and gotten closer, but I shot it from far and still thought it was in."

The late meltdown was eerily similar to many under former coach Robert McCullum.

"We positioned ourselves to win but didn't get the job done," Heath said. "And I know these guys have a little bit of experience going through that in the past, but it's just not acceptable to me."

Early in the game, with USF down nine, one fan sitting in the student section tried to motivate the Bulls by yelling, "You're playing like the football team," alluding to USF's struggles on the gridiron.

Without Gransberry in the middle, CSU outrebounded USF 35-30, outscored USF 34-20 in the paint, and had a 15-9 advantage in second-chance points.

"You never know how the game plays out if Gransberry would have played, but the difference in points in the paint and rebounds would be significantly different," Heath said. "Does that change the outcome? Probably a good possibility. But you can't play what-ifs. We didn't have him, so we played the guys we had, and we still should've won the game in my opinion."

Jesus Verdejo and Jones scored 17 and 13 points, respectively, for the Bulls.

Inside The Game

PLAYER OF THE GAME: USF guard Solomon Bozeman came off the bench to score a team-high 19 points and hit five 3-pointers.

STAT OF THE GAME: The Vikings outscored USF 34-20 in the paint and had a 15-9 advantage in second-chance points.

TURNING POINT: With USF up eight with 4:29 remaining, Cleveland State closed the game on a 14-3 run.

UP NEXT: USF plays at Buffalo at 7 p.m. on !Tuesday.

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