Monday, December 29, 2008

Fernandez Becomes Career Wins Leader With 110-51 Win

University of South Florida head women’s basketball coach Jose Fernandez made history on monday becoming the school’s all-time winningest basketball coach – for both the men’s and women’s program – with the Bulls’ 110-51 win over Jackson State at the Sun Dome. Fernandez improved his career coaching record to 128-124 and in doing so surpassed former men’s coach Bobby Paschal who guided the men’s basketball team to 127 wins in 10 seasons. In addition, USF (12-1) stretched their winning streak to eight games while also improving its record home winning streak to 12 games dating back to last season. The Bulls’ 12-1 start is the best in school history.

USF used its momentum coming off of a commanding 100-47 victory last Sunday over Southern University just before the Christmas break. The Bulls made no doubt that they were going to take control of the game and not let go as they proceeded to score a record 73 points in the first half while holding the Lady Tigers to just 22. The Green and Gold have scored 60 points in a half three time this season. During the first half onslaught, the Bulls had two players – Jazmine Sepulveda and Danielle Starzynski – score 21 and 20 points respectively just shy of Jackson State’s 22-point total. Sepulveda finished the game with 26 points along with four assists. She also grabbed three steals in the win. It was Sepulveda’s 10th game this season scoring in double figures out of 13 games on the year. Starzynski finished the game with 24 points and 7 steals. Starzynski has scored double figures in every game so far this season. Janae Stokes finished with 20 points on 7-12 shooting, including a blistering 6-10 from three-point range. She also came away with five rebounds and four assists. Defensively, Porche Grant was a factor on the glass with nine rebounds, Dalembert finished with five and Brittany Denson had seven. The team also forced 27 turnovers on the afternoon leading to 41 points and had 14 steals.

Up next for USF is a trip to New Orleans for its non-conference finale to take on Tulane on Dec 30 at 8 p.m. (EST). The Bulls will open BIG EAST play on Jan. 3 when they face Marquette in Milwaukee at 8 p.m. (EST/7 p.m. (CST) . As always stay tuned for your USF Bulls updates. Until then, GO BULLS!!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Bulls Continue Rolling With Four Game Win Streak

The University of South Florida Women's basketball team is off to it's best start in school history with their newly acquired 11-1 record. The Bulls are on a 7 game winning streak while still remaining undefeated at home. On Sunday, Nov. 14th the Bulls took on in-state foe University of North Florida dominating the game in a 90-44 win. The Bulls scored 90 points for the sixth time in 9 games this season, while holding the opposition to fewer than 50 points for the fourth time this year. The big story however, was USF on the defensive side of the floor. The Bulls forced the Lady Osprey (2-5) into a season high 39 turnovers marking the fifth time this season that USF has forced it’s foe into 30 or more miscues. Danielle Starzynski led on the defensive end with a season high 11 steals, while Jazmine Sepulveda chipped in with 5. The Bulls would take a 41-22 lead into the locker room at the break and never look back from there. They shot a blistering 62.5 percent from the floor in the final 20 minutes of the game. Sepulveda led the Bulls offense with 24 points, while Starzynski followed behind with 19 points. Ashley Anderson also added 12 points and 7 assists in the win.

On thursday Dec. 18th, the Bulls then took on Grambling State and ended up turning in a record setting performance in a 126-62 victory. Janae Stokes led four players in double figures with 39 points, including 25 points in the second half. Danielle Starzynski scored 27 points, and Shantia Grace and Jazmine Sepulveda each added 14 points in the win. Porche Grant grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds. The Bulls, who came into the game averaging 87.9 points per game which was second in the nation behind BIG EAST foe Connecticut (92.4), made no doubt early that they were in control scoring six points in the in the first minute of the game and forcing the Lady Tigers to use one of their five timeouts. Grambling (2-6) would cut the lead to five points (8-3), but USF would blow the game open running out to a 60-33 lead at the intermission. After shooting 53.7 percent it didn’t look like the Bulls could shoot any better in the second half. USF, however, would hit 64.9 percent of their shots in the second half and finished the contest shooting 59 percent from the floor. The Bulls would hit the century mark – for the third time this season, which is the first time in school history that they accomplished the feat – when Starzynski hit the two free throws with 9:36 left in the game to give USF a 100-52 lead. In the end, the Bulls’ 126 points turned out to be the most scored in a Division I game this season, while also setting a new school mark surpassing their previous best of 124 originally set against Morris Brown on Nov. 30, 2002.

On Saturday Dec. 20th, the Bulls were back in action in their 2nd game in 3 days, taking on Northern Arizona. It's been a long week for these girls so you’ll have to excuse them if they came out a bit sluggish to start the game off. Unfortunately, for Northern Arizona, USF was still good enough to defeat the Lumberjacks, 82-43, in a non-conference game at the Sun Dome.
“I thought we played uninspired basketball today,” said Bulls’ head coach Jose Fernandez. “I can’t put my finger on it, but we just seemed to be going through the motions. We had 18 turnovers today, and of the 18, nine came from our post players. We just can’t have that. We need to protect the basketball. We need to come out tomorrow afternoon against Southern and play well.” Despite the Bulls handing 13 of their 18 miscues over to NAU in the first half, USF forced Northern Arizona (3-9) into 18 miscues in the first stanza which led to 18 of its 45 first half points. The Bulls dominated the first 20 minutes finding themselves up by 20 points, 26-6, with 10:02 left on a Jazmine Sepulveda lay-up off a Danielle Starzynski steal.
USF took a 45-19 lead into the locker room at the break after shooting 42.1 percent from the field and holding the Lumberjacks to 25 percent from the floor. USF would extend its lead to as many as 41 points in the second half when Janae Stokes scored two of her 13 points on a jumper with 7:15 remaining. The Bulls would equal that margin one more time prior to the final buzzer.
The Lumberjacks would finish the game with 35 turnovers leading to 38 points and shot 30.5 percent from the field, including a dismal 11.1 percent from behind the three-point arc, in the loss. USF finished shooting 40.3 percent from the field and 44.4 percent from behind the arc.
Starzynski led the Bulls with 17 points while Stokes had her 13 and Ashley Anderson chipped in with 10 points.

On Sunday, Dec. 21st, in the Bulls' last and most recent game University of South Florida head women’s basketball coach Jose Fernandez tied Bobby Paschal for the most wins by a USF basketball coach in school history – men’s or women’s – with a 100-47 triumph over Southern University at the Sun Dome. The win, the sixth straight for the Bulls, raised their record to 11-1 marking the best start in the program’s history. Fernandez raised his career record to 127-124 in eight-plus years (251 games). Should USF defeat it’s next opponent, Jackson State, on Sunday, Dec. 28 (2 p.m.) he would surpass Paschal who guided the men’s basketball team to 127 wins in 10 seasons (286 games). Shantia Grace led six players in double figures with 21 points while Danielle Starzynski added 19, and Jazmine Sepulveda and Ashley Anderson each added 12 points in the win. Brittany Denson and Janae Stokes also chipped in with 11 points a piece. On the afternoon, USF shot 46.7 percent from the field while holding the Jaguars to 29.2 percent in the loss. The Bulls will take a break for Christmas before returning to face Jackson State on Sunday, December 28th at the Sun Dome. As always stay tuned for more updates and GO BULLS!!!

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Bulls Dominate FIU, 99-71, For Third Straight Win

The University of South Florida women’s basketball team continued their momentum after two impressive wins in the Paradise Jam tournament in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands with a 99-71 victory over Florida International (1-6). The victory moved the Bulls to 7-1 on the season, and they are undefeated at home.

After a somewhat slow start for the Bulls in the first half, they were able to blow the game wide open in the second stanza with some key offense by Danielle Starzynski. Starzynski finished the night with 32 points. She finished the game shooting 17 of 21 from the field, including 5-7 from behind the three-point arc, and 5-5 from the free throw line.

Also recording a career-high was Jazmine Wynne with 20 points surpassing her previous high of 16.

The Bulls came out on fire during the second half with two threes by Sepulveda and one by Starzynski in the first 1:55 of the second half. USF, ultimately would put the game out of reach by scoring 41 points in just under 12 minutes, outscoring the Golden Panthers 41-23 from the beginning of the second stanza to the 8:16 mark to make the score 81-56.

FIU’s leading scorer, Monica Bosilj, was held to just five points during the game. Bosilj came into the game averaging 16.7 points per outing and was coming off a 32-point game against No. 15/16 Auburn.

Also in double digits for the Bulls were Shantia Grace and Ashley Anderson, netting 16 and 14 points respectively.

On the night, USF shot 52.8 percent (38-72) from the field, including 47.4 percent (9-19) from behind the three-point arc, which were both season highs. In addition, the Bulls’ 59 second-half points are the fifth most scored in a single half in the program’s history.

Tonight’s game also marked the third time this season that the Bulls have forced their opponents into 30 or more turnovers, and the seventh time this season that their foe’s have logged 26 or more m miscues. The Golden Panthers has 32 turnovers on the night which led to 39 points. Starzynski led the way with 8 steals.

The Bulls will have a breather before their next game when they take on North Florida on Dec. 14 at 3 pm. As always keep reading and stay tuned for the lates USF Bulls women's basketball action. Go Bulls!