USF beats DePaul, tied for third in Big East

As the final seconds ticked down, Ron Anderson Jr. led the cheers for a South Florida men's basketball team that continues to surprise in the Big East.

Gus Gilchrist scored 22 points and Jawanza Poland added 19 as the Bulls led the entire second half Sunday and were rarely threatened in a 75-59 Big East road victory against DePaul.

USF (12-8, 5-2) is off to its best start in the conference, moving into a four-way tie for third place. The Bulls are 1 ½ games behind Big East leader Syracuse.

"When you've been on the other side of the stick, you really appreciate winning a lot more," USF coach Stan Heath said. "And the guys really appreciate winning a lot more. Even when guys don't have great games, they're cheering for each other."

So thorough was the victory that walk-on Mike McCloskey had a layup for the Bulls' final points and first two of his career as Anderson and the bench erupted.

USF entered with the best scoring defense in the Big East at 57.6 points per game. The Blue Demons (10-9, 1-6) entered averaging 75.1 points for the second-best mark in the conference, but shot a season-low 33.8 percent.

The contest was a back-and-forth affair early, with Heath saying DePaul was a "step quicker" than his team. The coach went away from man-to-man defense to employ a pair of zones that slowed the Blue Demons.

"I just felt we had to give them some different looks," Heath said. "We went back and forth in two different zone defenses."

Anthony Collins' three-point play gave USF the lead for good at 25-23 and triggered a 15-6 run to close the half for a 37-29 advantage. Poland's transition 3-pointer off a feed from Victor Rudd. Jr. ended that surge.

The Bulls forced DePaul's second-leading scorer, Brandon Young, to miss all 13 shots while Moses Morgan was 1 of 10. Young's 13 misses without a make are the most in Division I this season.

"To hold an impressive player like Young to 0 for 13 is impressive," Heath said.

Collins' back-to-back layups were part of an 8-0 run that established the Bulls' first double-digit advantage at 62-49 with 5 minutes, 38 seconds left, and the lead grew as big as 17 in the final minutes. The freshman guard's ballhandling ability was critical in helping USF get past DePaul's full-court pressure.

"That stretch run at the end, it was his two layups I thought that really kind of closed it out," Heath said. "He's beyond his years, and he's a key guy for our basketball team."

USF finished at 56 percent from the field for its highest mark in a Big East road game outside of its 57.1 mark at DePaul last season.

"They found me in spots where I was good at today," Gilchrist said. "We played really, really good team ball today."

The Bulls complete this brief road trip with Tuesday's visit to No. 21 Marquette, one of the three teams tied with them for third place.

"We're excited," Heath said. "We have never been here before. We lost a lot of games last year."