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Bulls Take Out Their Frustrations On Owls

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By JERRY SCHAEFFER, Tribune correspondent

Published: November 18, 2007

DAYTONA BEACH - A new chapter in the Stan Heath Era began for the University of South Florida on Saturday. And it happened in monstrous fashion.

Heath's Bulls experienced success for the first time under their new coach, pulverizing a Florida Atlantic team that became the target of three previous games of bitter USF frustration. The Bulls won, 100-69 - and it wasn't that close.

"We did just about everything right today," said Heath, whose club is 1-3. "It feels good to win, but it feels especially good the way we did it - by setting the tone early and sticking with it."

The Bulls, who hit the 100-point mark for the first time since the 2001-02 season, never trailed against Florida Atlantic. In fact, the tempo the Bulls set early on seemed to stun the Owls (1-3) into disbelief.

"Establishing the inside game early was our plan," said Bulls center Kentrell Gransberry, who paced his squad with 21 points. "We felt like we did that - that the inside became out territory."

Gransberry was like a man among boys on the boards, grabbing a game-high nine caroms during only 19 minutes of playing time. He also swatted away two FAU shots.

"Kentrell has to play all the time like he did today - if we are to have success," Heath said. "We have to have his scoring, his rebounding, his presence, his consistency. When he puts all of that together with his size (6-foot-9, 270 pounds), it makes a threatening impression."
Sophomore guard Chris Howard also exhibited a threatening presence with his outside prowess for the Bulls.

"Chris did a great job running our team," Heath said. "I could tell he was involved in things, but I had no idea - until looking at the stats - that he had scored 18 points."

His scoring represents a career-best, topping by two points the total he had in Friday's seven-point loss to Rhode Island. The 6-3 communications major also dished out a game-best nine assists, giving him an eye-popping average of 7.0 after four games.

"We wanted to get a really good start today," Howard said. "We did that, and FAU never really recovered."

The Bulls soared quickly to leads of 10-2, 20-6 and 27-8 during the first 8:30 of action. Solomon Bozeman, who came off the bench, did the bulk of the damage from outside, netting 14 first-half points in taking the Bulls to a 27-point command at the break, 52-25. Credit USF's 66.7 percent shooting for a lot of that.

Gransberry, Howard and Bozeman (17 points) led the way in building on USF's domination in the second half. In fact, even when Heath began substituting, the margin continued to grow. The largest lead was 35 points, 96-61, with 4:03 showing.

"Plain and simple," FAU coach Rex Walters said, "USF is just a lot tougher than we are. They did good things, forced us into bad, bad mistakes and took over the game very early. Our guys never stepped up to the plate, but USF had a lot to do with that."

FAU's Paul Graham, who nailed 20 second-half points, led all scorers with 23.

INSIDE THE GAME

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Kentrell Gransberry had 21 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocked shots.

STAT OF THE GAME: The Bulls shot 64.3 percent in the first half, leading to a 52-25 halftime advantage.

TURNING POINT: Dominique Jones' 3-pointer to start the scoring for USF, which continually built on that lead.

UP NEXT: USF battles Florida State in the Classic finale tonight at 8:15.

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