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New heights
South Florida reaches its first C-USA semifinal with the biggest upset in school history.
By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer
Published March 11, 2005
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MEMPHIS - For those doubters who thought USF wasn't ready to move on to the Big East, the Bulls aren't ... just yet.
The 11th-seeded Bulls pulled off their third upset in six days, this the biggest yet, stunning No. 21 Cincinnati 80-68 Thursday night to extend their stay in Conference USA another day at the league tournament at the FedExForum.
Never mind that a week ago, USF hadn't beaten a ranked team in 13 years; the Bulls have done that twice in the past week. Never mind that Cincinnati had beaten the Bulls by 26 six weeks ago and had won all 14 meetings against USF under coach Bob Huggins - all by double digits; that streak ended as well.
"I'm extremely proud of all our players. It's a great win for our program, for our university," said coach Robert McCullum, whose Bulls (14-15) have doubled their win total from his first season as coach.
And instead of playing for their fifth championship in 10 years in the league, the Bearcats are left to answer questions about how they feel about joining the Big East.
"I haven't thought about it," Huggins said. "When you get whipped like that, it's hard to think about anything else."
Instead of leaving C-USA as the only team never to reach the tournament semifinals, the Bulls have the honor of being the lowest seed ever to get there.
Senior forward Terrence Leather, held scoreless by the same Bearcats in January, came up huge, beating them inside and, uncharacteristically, outside with three 3-pointers on the way to 21 points. The Bulls, who hadn't strung together two wins in a conference tournament since 1990 in the Sun Belt, advanced to tonight's semifinal at 7 against seventh-seeded Memphis on the Tigers' home court.
Cincinnati (24-7) cut a 12-point lead to 71-65 with 5:14 left and could have cut it to four when Jason Maxiell, who led the Bearcats with 21 points, went up for a dunk but was stripped. Cincinnati wouldn't score again until 35 seconds were left, and by then, the Bulls had padded their lead to 15 points on 7-of-8 free-throw shooting.
All three of the Bulls' starting seniors played like they didn't want their college careers to end. Point guard Brian Swift scored 16 and had five assists, and forward Marlyn Bryant came through with 14. They had a surprise guest in double figures as junior guard James Holmes scored 14, his highest total since November.
The Bulls took the lead for good when Leather made a driving layup for a 51-50 lead with 12:29 remaining. The 6-9 power forward had made only three 3-pointers all season - he'd only attempted eight - but he made three Thursday, including two on back-to-back possessions to close an 11-0 run that gave USF a 57-50 lead.
"I can shoot it," said Leather, who had his sixth consecutive double double. "Coach just told me before the season to stay away from the 3-pointers."
Said McCullum: "He went 3-for-3. I'm not going to argue with that. ... This time of the season, strange things have happened."
USF had confidence from the opening possession, which saw sophomore guard Marius Prekevicius hit a 3-pointer with 1 second left on the shot clock.
Despite Leather going 2-for-10 from the field, the Bulls went into halftime up 36-35, sparked by balanced scoring. Holmes and Prekevicius had six and seven points, and Bryant had seven. The Bulls were 5-of-9 beyond the arc while forcing Cincinnati to miss all but one of its 10 3-pointers.
For the Bulls, it was a markedly improved showing from a nationally televised 74-48 loss to the Bearcats in Tampa in January. Leather was held scoreless in that game, rendered a nonfactor by extreme foul trouble.
"He couldn't wait for another opportunity," McCullum said of Leather's anticipation of a rematch. "It's great how he had a chance to redeem himself in a winning fashion."
The Bulls had pulled off a pair of upsets in the previous five days, knocking off then-No. 18 Charlotte 85-73 Saturday and unseating sixth-seeded Houston 69-64 in Wednesday's opening round.
The Charlotte win was USF's first against a ranked team in 13 years; the Houston upset matched the highest seed the Bulls had beaten in a decade of C-USA tournament play.
"I have no idea how they'll do (against Memphis)," Huggins said of the Bulls.
"But they played really well today."
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