Colleges

Bulls romp in warmup for Duke

Lady Bulls roll to an easy win

By GREG AUMAN
Published November 14, 2007

TAMPA - It's nothing like what USF will face Thursday, but as openers go, Tuesday's 84-49 win against Bethune-Cookman gave the Bulls a good dose of confidence heading into a downtown showdown against Duke.

"I'm excited. We had a couple of mental mistakes, but that's going to happen with a whole new team," said guard Shantia Grace, who scored all of her 14 in the second half, including 11 in the first four minutes.

Facing a team that went 5-25 last season, the Bulls led just 17-13 early, then ended the half on a 25-6 run and opened the second with a 20-5 spurt. Center Jessica Lawson and point guard Jazmine Sepulveda had 16 points each in their USF debuts, and sophomore Porche Grant had 14 rebounds and seven points off the bench. In all, 11 USF players played at least 11 minutes, and a Sun Dome crowd announced at 927 saw the Bulls hit 11 3-pointers, matching their fourth-highest total ever.

"It was good to get everybody in the ballgame," coach Jose Fernandez said. "The reality is that's not going to happen every night that we play. We're not going to have the luxury to turn the ball over 20 times and shoot (55) percent from the free-throw line like we did tonight."

Top 25

NO. 3 MARYLAND 91, DELAWARE 43: Kristi Toliver had 19 points and 10 assists and Marissa Coleman had 16 points and five assists to help the host Terrapins win their third game in five days in the quarterfinals of the WNIT. Maryland played its second game without All-American forward Crystal Langhorne, out with a sprained ankle.

NO. 7 UNC 98, ELON 53: Rashanda McCants scored 16 to lead the host Tar Heels, who shot 48 percent, had 53 rebounds to the Phoenix's 33 and forced 32 turnovers.

NO. 8 UGA 105, GA. SOUTHERN 66: Tasha Humphrey scored 18 for the host Bulldogs to become the school's No.8 career scorer with 1,772 points, passing Tracy Henderson.

NO. 23 NOTRE DAME 78, W.KY. 59: Ashley Barlow scored 18 and Charel Allen 16, and the host Irish jumped to a 28-point first-half lead and cruised in the WNIT.

Information from Times wires was used in this report.

[Last modified November 14, 2007, 00:53:14]