West Coast Convo
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USF Wins Against Houston Baptist 85-54

By Mary Harvill

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Back home on the hilltop, the USF Dons took care of business defeating Houston Baptist Sunday afternoon, December 7, 2014, also the anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

It was a nice win for the Dons after their beat down in Colorado. Winning today was important for the Dons, a sentiment shared by Matt Christiansen, who started the game for USF. Freshman Devin Watson led USF in scoring with 14 points off the bench too. A handy weapon in the arsenal for future use. Kruize Pinkins had a better game today with 11 points. Tim Derksen and Mark Tollefson both finished the game with 12 points. Coach Rex Walter said “this is the deepest group” he’s ever coached.

Houston kept the score close through the first half until the Dons went on a rampage beginning with 3 minutes remaining, allowing them to close out the first half with a ten point lead over the Huskies. The Dons returned from half time at the same pace and were leading Houston by 22 points in the early minutes of the second half. USF finished the second half completing 65% of their shots and shot 55% overall for the entire game.

Alex Fountain and Richmonds Vilde led the way for Houston as the top scorers in the first half and finished the game with 6 points and 7 points respectively. Reveal Chukwujekwu and Marcel Smith were key contributors in the second half accumulating 10 points each for the game. Colton Lasher, normally a leading scorer for Houston scored only 2 points before fouling out of the game after playing only 13 minutes. USF schooled Houston in the art of an effective defense.

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If the Dons were competing in the NAIA, their season would be a cakewalk based on the results of this game. In the continuum of playing teams from varied conferences, the Dons have matched up well against the smaller conferences like the MAAC and the Southland Conference in Houston Baptist. USF did not play well against teams from the Missouri River Valley and the Pac-12 conference. Coach Rex Walter did not think any of the teams that beat USF were better than his team.

Another conference match-up test awaits the Dons on Thursday, December 11, 2014 when they play Eastern Washington University from the Big Sky conference. EWU recently beat Indiana University. Though Indiana is no longer a Top 25 team, this win was still significant. Coach Walter expects the game to be “war” and he says that “EWU will definitely be bringing it” to the hilltop. You can bet that the Dons will bring their “A” game on Thursday. The win over Houston Baptist will provide some much needed momentum for that game.

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