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Back at it! The Bulls began their 2016-17 season last night with a 78 to 42 win over UNF. The Bulls started a bit slow, but dominated the entire way, improving their overall record against the Ospreys to 8-0.
The Bulls led 36 to 18 after the first two quarters of the game. USF was shooting just 38% but held UNF to a 22% mark. USF dominated in total rebounds at 29 to 21 as Kitija Laksa led the way in scoring with 11 points while Maria Jespersen added 10 more. It wasn’t the best half, but the Bulls were the better team and never trailed.
In the 2nd half, the Bulls were able to pull away and just piled up the stat sheet as the bench got to get into the game and picked up valuable minutes. USF shot 37% overall from the field (28% for UNF) and were 17 for 20 from the free throw line. USF won the rebounding battle 58 to 35 and totaled 30 points in the paint and 24 points off the bench. It was just a solid from star to finish in this one.
Kitija Laksa led the Bulls with 18 points (7 for 21 shooting) and added 5 rebounds. Maria Jespersen had 16 points and 8 rebounds. Laia Flores added 8 points, 5 rebounds, and led the team with 8 assists. Ariadna Pujol had 6 points and 6 rebounds. Laura Ferreira even played for 9 minutes as she continues to battle with the foot injury (still possible for the redshirt per Coach Fernandez). Katelyn Weber had 6 points and 11 rebounds.
The newcomers also made some noise in this opening game. Dorottya Nagy had 5 points and 3 rebounds. Tamara Henshaw had 11 points and 8 rebounds and Jazz Bond drilled a 3-pointer in limited minutes. Claire Ioannidis had 10 points and 2 rebounds for UNF.
The Bulls will host Jacksonville on Monday (game begins at 7 PM). I hope USF builds off of this win, cleans things up, and gets another victory next week.
by Matt Staton
SoFloBulls.com Columnist | @USFMatt
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