USF wastes chance with careless effort

The University of South Florida basketball team rallied from a halftime deficit for one of the biggest road wins in school history in its previous trip to Georgetown.

Not this time.

An avalanche of turnovers in the first half and shoddy defense after the break Saturday combined to deal the Bulls a 75-45 loss before 11,916 at Verizon Center.

"Today just wasn't our day," USF coach Stan Heath said. "I don't know what it was. Early start, late start, I don't know. It wasn't our day. This wasn't our typical team."

Augustus Gilchrist scored 15 points for the Bulls (13-10, 6-4 Big East), who had a nearly 11-minute scoreless streak and had 11 turnovers in the first half. Henry Sims (13 points) was one of five players in double figures for the No. 14 Hoyas (18-4, 8-3).

USF squandered a chance to move up in the Big East standings. The Bulls and Hoyas were two of three teams to enter the weekend with only three conference losses, and this was the lone regular-season meeting between the teams.

There would be no upset like in 2010, when USF erased a nine-point halftime deficit to upend the then-No. 7 Hoyas. The reason was obvious.

"Really, it was our carelessness, especially in the first half, that really put us in that deficit," Gilchrist said. "Turnovers are the name of the game. When we take care of the ball, we always have a great chance of winning. But when we don't, we don't put ourselves in position to have enough possessions to go against a team that can obviously score like Georgetown."

The Bulls led 5-4 after five minutes, but soon found themselves unable to get shots off, let alone score. Some of it was USF's impatience. Some of it was Georgetown's ability to disrupt the Bulls' passing lanes. Some of it was foul trouble for point guard Anthony Collins.

The result was a forgettable nine-possession stretch with two missed shots, two offensive rebounds and nine turnovers. Little wonder the Bulls didn't reach double figures for nearly 17 minutes.

USF had 17 giveaways for the game, falling to 1-7 when committing at least 15 turnovers.

"It's been our recipe for lack of success," Heath said. "We did the same thing against Marquette. We had 22 in that game. When we've had losses, that's typically the magic number that sticks out for us."

Despite the turnovers, the Bulls snuck into the break trailing only 23-15 after a layup to close the first half. But the Hoyas needed less than seven minutes to open a 20-point lead to extinguish USF's hopes of a comeback.

"We didn't really play that well, yet it was still a close game," forward Ron Anderson Jr. said. "We came out in the second half (and thought) we might be able to turn it up. We really didn't change too much going from the first half to second half."

There was arguably one change. The Bulls' defense crumbled, yielding 50 points in a half for the first time since a loss to Cincinnati in last year's Big East tournament to add another reason for self-reflection before Wednesday's home game against Pittsburgh.

"We're one of the leading defensive teams in the Big East," Gilchrist said. "We just didn't show up on defense today. We need to come harder."