Monday, November 17, 2008

Women's Hoops Roll in Victorious Weekend and Take Tourney Title

The weekend looked to be a very succesfull one for the lady Bulls as they blew past competition in both of their tourney games on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday the Bulls took on Central Connecticut State in the first round. The bulls were in control for the entire game, coming out with a 30-9 start through the first 8:30. After that point they never looked back and ended up defeating Central Connecticut 100-63. USF shot 56.8% (21 of 37) from the field in the first half en route to a commanding 53-18 lead at halftime. The bulls got 16 of Danielle Starzynski's 33 points in the first half, while Jazmine Sepulveda netted 9 points in the first 30 minutes. USF's defense was just as impressive, holding Central Connecticut to just 22.6% shooting from the field and forcing 16 first half turnovers. Starzynski led the way with 8 steals on the defensive end. In the 2nd half everyone became involved in the action with other Bulls players like Jasmine Wynne scoring 15 points and registering 7 assists. Melissa Dalembert also finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds. The high scorer of the game was Starzynski with 33 points.

On Sunday's game the Bulls then took on Loyola in the finals of the USF shootout. Early on in the game things didn't look very promising for the girls as they came out cold missing the first seven shots and not scoring a point until Danielle Starzynski it a jumper about three and a half minutes into the contest. Loyola hung around for a majority of the first eight minutes until the Bulls used a 13-2 run started by Starzynski's 3 pointer with 11:31 left and ending with a layup of an assist by Starzynski with 7:57 left. The bulls then took a 53-22 lead into the half. USF never looked back from there, dominating the rest of the game and seeming to finally get hot finishing at 56.3% from the field. The Bulls put up another 41 additional points in the 2nd half, leading by as many as 48 at the final buzzer. Five Bulls players ended up in double figures, led by Starzynski who had a tremendous game with 39 points on 16 of 21 shooting and also recorded 9 steals, 3 blocks, and 5 asissts. Jazmine Sepulveda added 14 points, Janae Stokes and Melissa Dalembert each added 13, and Shantia Grace added 12. Starzynski and Sepulveda were named to the All-Tournament team. For the 2nd straight game, the Bulls forced their opponent into over 30 turnovers and ending with only nine of their own in the win. The bulls now have a 2-0 record as they have a quick turnaround and get back to work on Tuesday, Nov. 18th 7pm against instate foe Stetson. The Bulls are off to a very promising start and we look forward to seeing what the rest of the season has in store. As always, we'll keep you posted. GO BULLS!!

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