By Kenneth Cross
TAMPA – The South Florida Bulls extended their current winning streak to four games on Thursday evening as Chris Youngblood scored 23 points and Kasean Pryor added 21 and the Bulls to defeat Albany, 89-73, at Yuengling Center.
Youngblood scored eight of his points in the first 5:30 as USF took a 16-8 lead. However, the Great Danes had a tremendous fight in the first half. Albany shot 61 percent from the field and 50 percent from three and the Bulls garnered a 47-46 halftime advantage.
Coach Amir Abdur-Rahim asked the players at halftime what the problems were in the first half. They immediately took to the defensive end of the floor and explained the problems such as lack of ball pressure and creating more turnovers.
“If they didn’t do a great job of fixing it, too,” said Abdur-Rahim. “Hold that team to 27 percent in the second half and 18 percent from three. That’s a very good team. They average 75 points per game.”
Pryor went to work immediately in the second half as he took three passes from Youngblood, dunked on two, and made a layup. The Bulls went ahead 57-51 with 16:30 left in the game as the work on the offensive end of the floor was a foreshadowing of what was to happen defensively.
“Coach was on me at halftime with defense first, so first, I put that in my head and that we have to get stops and that will create our offense and our energy,” said Pryor. “Coach drew up some good plays for Chris that were some good passes to me and we just executed.”
The defensive end of the floor was a prevalent endeavor during the entire second half for the Bulls. Once Amare Marshall scored on a layup off of his drive with 8:52 remaining in the game, the Bulls held Albany scoreless from the floor over the next 6:05. Another Marshall layup with 2:48 remaining cut the Bulls’ lead to 84-68.
“Their numbers were really high at halftime so we got to halftime and talked about it,” said Abdur-Rahim. “It was a toughness thing.”
The Great Danes had a stretch of going 2-of-10 from the floor after Marshall scored three consecutive baskets for Albany in cutting that lead to 70-64.
At that point, Albany was 0-for-9 over that 6:05 stretch that saw Brandon Stroud score three field goals in a row to give USF an 80-64 advantage with 5:33 remaining.
“He had a really great year – defensive player of the year, so what happens? Well you want more,” explained Abdur-Rahim. “You want to not just be defensive player of the year, you want it on offense. I told him you have been really good offensively because you were great defensively.”
Stroud had a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds in 19 minutes.
“I thought Brandon got back to being Brandon and this is normal, it’s not a knock on him,” said Abdur-Rahim. “I think sometimes from your sophomore to your junior year, what do they call it a sophomore slump?”
In addition to the four-game winning streak before Christmas break, Abdur-Rahim saw his team combine for a cumulative 3.18 GPA.
“We have been talking about creating habits that match,” noted Abdur-Rahim. “Habits on the court; habits off the court. They have to match. There are a few areas we start in. The area that’s always the challenge is how much do you create yourself in the classroom?”
Abdur-Rahim was pleased with his team being ready to play against Albany and not thinking ahead to the holiday break. That spelled the stellar defensive play in the second half.
“I’m really proud of these guys having the fortitude to stick to it where their feet are and come and perform,” he said.