The USF Bulls (7-23, 1-17) season came to an end with a 77-66 loss to Connecticut (15-16, 9-9) on Thursday night in the first round of the AAC tournament.
It appeared as though the Huskies may run away with this game when they took a 42-29 lead into halftime and a 15-point lead moments into the second half. At that point, however, USF answered with a 10-0 run and pulled within two points several times in the second half. After Geno Thorpe hit a 3-pointer to make it 67-65 with three minutes remaining, the Bulls leading scorer fouled out less than a minute later. From there the Huskies had no trouble putting this one away, scoring the game's last eleven points to clinch the win.
Rodney Purvis was the story of this one for UConn, scoring a career high 30 points to pace the Huskies while grabbing six rebounds. The Huskies also got big play from Amida Brimah (13 points, 7 rebounds) and Christian Vital (11 points) to snap a four-game losing streak. Geno Thorpe scored 23 points with six assists to lead the Bulls, joined by 13 points from Michael Bibby and 10 points with seven rebounds from Tulio Da Silva.
The Huskies now advance to the AAC Quarterfinals against Houston on Friday night. As for USF, they wrap up a disappointing season on a six game losing streak and having lost 18 of their last 19 games. Interim head coach Murray Bartow went 1-16 after replacing Orlando Antigua in January, and has recently expressed public interest in the position on a full-time basis. Check out 620 WDAE's USF coverage all offseason long for the absolute latest.