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Buffalo Shuts Down Gransberry

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By RODNEY McKISSIC, Tribune correspondent

Published: November 14, 2007

AMHERST, N.Y. - Kentrell Gransberry is a big part of what South Florida wants to do on offense. Apparently, Buffalo was well aware of his low-post presence and preceded to make Gransberry's life miserable Tuesday night.

Buffalo limited the Wooden Award candidate to nine points on three of 14 shooting in USF's 76-69 loss to Buffalo at Alumni Arena. Gransberry, who averaged 11.4 rebounds last season, grabbed a game-high 10 boards against Buffalo (2-1), but rarely got a clean look at the basket.
USF (0-2) was led by Jesus Verdejo's 18 points, while Dominique Jones added 17. Point guard Chris Howard finished with nine assists, but committed six of USF's 20 turnovers.

"We're a team that, right now, is not playing very good basketball," first-year coach Stan Heath said. "There's a lot of things that we have to fix and clean up but we're not getting it done."

Buffalo was led by point guard Rodney Pierce, who scored a career-best 20 points and added seven rebounds and three assists. Guard Sean Smiley came off the bench with a personal-high 16 points, and drilled four of nine from beyond the 3-point arc and 6-for-12 overall.

It was Smiley's foul on Solomon Bozeman as he took and canned a 3-pointer that tied the game at 57 with 11:54 left. But the 4-point play seemed to awaken Buffalo, who went on a momentum-shifting 11-2 run triggered by Smiley, who scored five points and added an assist during the burst. Smiley ended the run with a layup off a steal by Byron Mulkey that pushed the lead to 68-59.

"I thought when we tied it up in the second half, our team was going to make a couple of defensive stops, get ahead of them and keep winning the game," Verdejo said. "That didn't happen. They stayed focused and we didn't make stops. They did a great job executing their offense."

That was enough breathing room to keep away South Florida, who couldn't make any 3-pointers or free throws down the stretch.

INSIDE THE GAME

PLAYER OF THE GAME: USF's Jesus Verdejo had 18 points on 8-for-14 shooting.

STAT OF THE GAME: USF made six of 12 free throws.

TURNING POINT: USF tied the game at 57 with 11:54 left before Buffalo went on a momentum-shifting 11-2 run to pull away.

UP NEXT: USF plays Rhode Island in the Glenn Wilkes Classic at 2:15 p.m. Friday in Daytona Beach.

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