Bulls lose to St. John's 74-58

Maybe a trip to Starbucks would have helped, or perhaps another hour of sleep would have added some pep to their step.

Whatever the reason, the University of South Florida men's basketball team came out flat in Saturday's 74-58 loss to St. John's, a loss that stings considerably since the Bulls need every win they can get as they attempt to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 18 years.

"We just didn't come with it,'' said senior guard Mike Mercer. "Everyone has to look in the mirror. I personally take blame because I didn't come out with the defensive intensity that I should have come out with.''

The Bulls (16-10, 6-8) quickly fell behind in the noon start at the Sun Dome, still looking asleep as St. John's raced to a five-point less than three minutes in. USF responded briefly, taking a 20-19 lead on Antony Crater's jump shot with 8:03 left in the first half.

That was USF's last lead of the game, not the sort of performance Bulls coach Stan Heath expected with a chance to climb back to .500 in the Big East. The loss snapped the Bulls' four-game home win streak.

"I thought [our slow start] set us back mentally,'' Heath said. "We didn't recover very well. We can't play defense that way. We've come a long ways. We still have a lot of basketball in front of us. We can still get back on the right track and keep the momentum going.''

St. John's (15-11, 5-9) was the more aggressive team and more efficient team Saturday, shooting a season-high 58.7 percent from the floor and finishing with a 34-26 rebounding edge. St. John's D.J. Kennedy led the Red Storm with 17 points.

Kennedy, who also spent much of the game limiting USF's Dominique Jones to a 6-for-18 shooting performance, had plenty of help offensively as nine different players scored for St. John's, which is suddenly one of the hotter teams in the league with three wins in the past four games.

"This is the toughest league in America, by far,'' St. John's coach Norm Roberts said. "And it's a league that no teams give up. If you're a little off, no matter if you are home or away, you will get beat.''

The Bulls learned that lesson the hard way Saturday in front of an announced crowd of 5,823. Jones and Mercer each scored 17 points, and senior guard Chris Howard added 14, but USF's post presence was non-existent.

USF's top four post players - Augustus Gilchrist, Jarrid Famous, Toarlyn Fitzpatrick and Alex Rivas - combined for just five points and 10 rebounds on 2-of-11 shooting.

"Their big guys took it to us a little bit,'' Heath said. "We didn't finish around the basket. They really controlled that backboard.''

Trailing 35-24 at halftime, USF made one final run at overcoming its sluggish start after falling behind by 16 points (40-24) in the first minute of the second half. With Jones scoreless the final 12:22 of the first half, he hit a 3-pointer to trim the lead to 41-29. The Bulls capped a 15-3 run - closing to with 43-39 with 11:59 left - on Mercer's basket.

However, St. John's responded with a 9-2 run and never looked back, dropping the Bulls back into a jammed group of teams in the lower half of the conference standings trying to play their way off the NCAA Tournament bubble.

USF travels to Villanova on Wednesday trying to recapture some of the momentum it built during that four-game Big East win streak earlier this season.

"I'm just trying to get this sour taste out of my mouth,'' Mercer said. "I can't wait for Wednesday.''