Jones scores 27 as USF men top UCF, 69-65

There is something about Central Florida that brings out the best in University of South Florida junior guard Dominique Jones.

Jones scored a game-high 27 points in USF's 69-65 win in front of a Sun Dome crowd of 4,627 on Wednesday night. In three games against UCF, Jones is averaging 29 points.

"They were talking a little trash and I think that kind of got me hyped up," said Jones, who added six rebounds and five steals. "Our team played real good, and we played together. We made some big shots and came out with the win."

The Bulls, coming off a three-point loss to Central Michigan, fared better in their second game without leading scorer Gus Gilchrist, who is out four to six weeks with an ankle injury.

"Our last game, I didn't know who that team was," USF coach Stan Heath said. "Sometimes you're going to have a tough loss, a bad loss, and more than anything you want to see your team respond. And we did."

The Bulls (8-2), who never trailed, hit 25 of 33 free-throw attempts (75.8 percent) and held a 38-27 advantage in rebounding.

"Two areas that we've been a little inconsistent at, we were very consistent (Wednesday) - and that was rebounding and free throws," Heath said. "I thought those two areas were the difference in the game."

Three other Bulls joined Jones in double figures. Guard Chris Howard had 14 points and a team-high six assists, guard Mike Mercer scored 12, and forward Jarrid Famous had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Famous' performance came a day after Heath called him out for a poor outing in the Central Michigan loss, a game in which the 6-foot-11, 240-pounder finished with five points and one rebound in 32 minutes.

Bulls freshman Toarlyn Fitzpatrick, of King High, made his first career start and finished with two points and nine rebounds.

USF plays San Francisco in the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic on Saturday.