No. 25 South Florida aims to secure its first outright conference regular-season championship in program history on Saturday when it visits Charlotte.
The Bulls (21-5, 14-1 American Athletic Conference) clinched at least a share of the conference title following their 79-68 victory over SMU on Sunday. The win was the school-record 13th in a row for South Florida, which finds itself ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time in the program’s history.
The Bulls hold a three-game lead over the 49ers (17-10, 11-4) and Florida Atlantic with three games to play.
“The job is not finished. Job is not finished,” South Florida first-year head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim said. “We’ve got a big-time game coming up on Saturday at Charlotte.”
Speaking of the 49ers, the Bulls won the first meeting between the teams with a 72-69 decision in Tampa on Feb. 6.
South Florida’s Selton Miguel made 13 of 14 shots from the foul line to finish with 22 points in that game.
Kasean Pryor, who scored just two points in that encounter, made all six of his shots from the floor to highlight his 19-point, nine-rebound performance versus the Mustangs.
Miguel had 18 points against SMU and Chris Youngblood added 12 for the Bulls, who shot a robust 51.2 percent from the floor and made 27 of 30 free throws to continue the good times in South Florida.
“This is a special place, man. I say it all the time and I promise I’m not just trying to throw stats at you. It’s the fastest-growing university in the country,” Abdur-Rahim said.
“It’s Tampa Bay’s home for hoops. You used to have to go to Miami or Orlando to get a good basketball game. Well, now you can drive 10, 15, 20 minutes and you can get pro-style offense with pro-style players that compete at a high level. It’s special. It’s special. We only want to add to it.”
Charlotte rebounded from its loss to South Florida by winning its next three games before dropping back-to-back road contests. The 49ers were outscored by 13 points in the second half and by 12 points in the paint for the game in their 69-67 setback to Tulsa last Saturday.
“We lost all types of rhythm (in the second half),” Charlotte head coach Aaron Fearne said. “We moved the ball extremely well that first half. They ramped it up a little bit (in the second) and we just lost rhythm to move the ball and trust each other in moving it and that’s kind of two games in a row.”
Lu’Cye Patterson scored 20 points versus the Golden Hurricane. He finished with half that total in the initial encounter versus South Florida.
Jackson Threadgill had 12 points against Tulsa and Dishon Jackson added 10 to go along with a career-high 12 rebounds.
Jackson collected 16 points and seven rebounds in the previous meeting with the Bulls.
The 49ers have won nine in a row at home and 12 of 13 such meetings this season. South Florida is 6-3 on the road.
–Field Level Media