College basketball

Bulls botch winnable game

By MIKE PHILLIPS
Published November 30, 2005

MIAMI - Later this season, South Florida is going to have to walk into places such as Syracuse, Villanova and every other pit in the Big East.

So it's a little difficult to measure just how bad Tuesday night's loss was, when the Bulls blew an 11-point lead in regulation and fell 69-64 in double overtime to Florida International, which plays home games on the west side of Miami in front of some of the smallest crowds in the NCAA.

But we do know this:

The Bulls (2-1) were not good enough to win on a bad night on the road.

The Bulls were not good enough to beat a team it almost always beats. They were 11-1 against FIU and hadn't lost to the Golden Panthers since 1989 (and they lost that one on a last-second 3-pointer).

This time, it took a 3-pointer from FIU's Elvis Lora with 6.9 second left in regulation to knot things at 54, and it took a running drive by USF's Chris Capko with one second left to send the game into its second overtime at 60-60.

But when 6-10 center Solomon Jones, the third Bull to foul out, picked up his fifth foul in the second OT, FIU finally took over.

"It was a lot easier with their big guys out," said Ivan Almonte, who put back his miss with 26 seconds left in the second OT to give FIU a 67-64 lead.

Backup guard Collin Dennis took USF's final shot, an air ball that was thrown up in traffic, and FIU's Ismael N'Diaye slammed in an exclamation point at the buzzer for the final.

"Once Solomon went out, it was difficult," said USF guard James Holmes, who led the Bulls with 20 points. "We've just got to learn from this game. We can't make those kinds of turnovers (28) and we can't make those kinds of mental mistakes."

The Bulls missed 13 of their first 18 shots, went through a 31/2-minute drought in the first half and had 13 turnovers. But FIU couldn't run away, and the Bulls took a 25-24 lead on Holmes' 10-footer at the buzzer. They opened the second half with a 15-6 run and were up 46-35 with 8:26 left.

"The way we played in the first half, we could have been down by 20," said USF coach Robert McCullum, who is down to his third point guard.

"We're as beat up as any team I've had," he said. "But that's not an excuse. We were the same team when we were up by 11. FIU just made plays when they had to make plays."

McCullum was disappointed in the final play of regulation. With a three-point lead, he wanted to foul.

"We were supposed to foul them, but we just didn't execute," Holmes said. "He came off the screen and got the shot off. And when it went in, it was like a dagger in the back."

[Last modified November 30, 2005, 05:07:35]