Bulls' quick start wasted against WVU

TAMPA Wednesday's men's basketball game against No. 10 West Virginia couldn't have started better for the University of South Florida.

The Bulls built an 11-point lead eight minutes in and had the season-high Sun Dome crowd of 6,110 thinking upset. But it seemed like USF didn't know what to do after its quick start and watched helplessly as the Mountaineers rallied for a 69-50 win.

The Bulls outplayed WVU in the first half. USF shot 57.1 percent from the floor while holding the Mountaineers to 37.5. And despite being undersized, the Bulls held a 22-14 advantage in points in the paint. They also held advantages in points off turnovers (6-4) and fast-break points (8-0).

But despite all the pluses, USF trailed 32-30 at the break.

The Bulls went ahead 23-12 on a layup by Mike Mercer at the 7:52 mark of the first half, but WVU went on a 34-9 run during a 14-minute stretch that gave the Mountaineers (13-2, 4-1) a 46-32 lead with 14:18 remaining in the game.

"I think everybody got a little bit excited and wanted to do their own thing," said USF's Dominique Jones, who scored a game-high 28 points. "That took us out of our flow and they got the momentum and just ran off with the game from there."

Jones was frustrated with the loss and disappointed that none of his teammates helped him with the scoring.

"Somebody's got to hit shots," Jones said. "(Today) I'm going to question everybody. Somebody's got to step up and hit shots. We can't go on the whole year with just me as the offensive threat."

USF (10-6, 0-4) was atrocious in the second half, hitting just 16.1 percent (5-for-31) of its shots.

"We were two different teams from the first half to the second half," Bulls coach Stan Heath said. "The first-half team I thought guarded really well and played well as a team, shared the ball and tried to make the simpler plays out on the court.

"I think the second-half team really didn't play team basketball. We were very individualistic. We were trying to go one-on-five. We forced a lot on offense. ... We were selfish and we gave up on some of the battles we needed to fight. And those are two things that are just unacceptable."

With forward Gus Gilchrist still sidelined with a high ankle sprain, Heath understands the need to find another consistent scorer to complement Jones until Gilchrist returns.

"It's too good of a league to try to beat people of this caliber with one player," Heath said.

After Jones, Mercer, Chris Howard and Jarrid Famous were the next high scores with six points apiece.

For the game, USF shot 32.7 percent from the field. The Bulls were 1-for-17 (5.9 percent) from 3-point range.

"I was so frustrated at halftime. We just didn't help each other," WVU coach Bob Huggins said. "We did in the second half what we were supposed to do the entire game."