The Bulls have trouble with scoring and injuries in a loss to Saint Louis.
By DARRYL MELLEMA
Published January 18, 2004
ST. LOUIS - South Florida couldn't run its transition offense when it wanted to, suffered injuries to key players and struggled to contain Saint Louis' offense on Saturday.
That combination helped send the Bulls to a 70-52 C-USA loss. USF only led twice and fell farther and farther behind as the contest progressed.
"That team, when you fall behind by 18 points, they're awful tough to come back against," USF coach Robert McCullum said.
Saint Louis (10-5, 3-1 C-USA) entered as the league's best defensive team and USF found out just how tough that defense can be. The Bulls became the eighth opponent this season to score 55 points or fewer against the Billikens.
USF (6-7, 0-2) has had trouble scoring this season regardless of the opponent. In its defeats, the Bulls are averaging fewer than 56 points and Saturday's game marked consecutive contests in which USF failed to score 60.
South Florida guard Brian Swift said it was hard to come back against Saint Louis' deliberate style: "They aren't really a transition team."
At the same time, South Florida does like to move quickly on offense and those chances came infrequently.
The Bulls have been short-handed all season, but the bench has gotten progressively shorter. Saturday, USF had two walk-ons among its 10-man roster.
"They're just not clicking," Saint Louis coach Brad Soderberg said. "They're laboring, but they'll be a good team eventually."
The bench got briefly shorter in the final minute of the first half when Swift sustained a left ankle injury. Swift, who had 10 first-half points, returned but did not score in the second half.
Terrence Leather left the game with a groin injury with four minutes left. He did not return.
"It's tough because some guys are put in roles they have not had before," Swift said. "Some guys have to play more minutes than they have before. But being competitors, we have to keep on rolling."
The two injured Bulls finished as the team's top scorers. Leather led USF in scoring and in rebounding (eight).
And despite not scoring in the second half, Swift's 10 points were second-best.
"It's been a short bench all year, quite frankly," McCullum said. "Sometimes you might have bodies but that doesn't mean you have any more players who are ready to play or who are ready to play in Conference USA play."
The bench has been shortened with the loss of Marlyn Bryant to a season-ending knee injury and with Jimmy Baxter quitting.
"We are not going to dwell on the players we don't have," McCullum said. "Our challenge is to get each of our players to play better and to play harder for longer periods of time."
Saint Louis' 11-2 scoring response to the second Bulls last lead, at 16-15, helped set the game firmly toward a Billikens victory.
"We came out and tried to get some stops on them," Swift said. "Then we started trading baskets with them and the game was over. We couldn't get any stops. At the beginning it was good. But then we didn't play well defensively."
Saint Louis stretched USF's defense, hitting key three-pointers in the first half and then pounding the ball inside. Chris Sloan scored inside and outside, hit his first six shots and had a game-high 18 points.
The Billikens' leading scorer, Reggie Bryant, struggled with 5-for-14 shooting but scored 17.
