Box Score
HONOLULU, Hawaii -- The USF men's basketball team will have a much happier plane ride back to the mainland after the Dons posted a 67-49 victory over East Tennessee State in the seventh-place game of the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu on Christmas morning.
The win snaps USF's five-game losing streak and evens the Dons record at 6-6 heading into Saturday night's home game against Dominican. East Tennessee State falls to 2-10 on the season.
Cole Dickerson paced all USF scorers with 19 points and narrowly missed his seventh double-double of the season as he finished with nine rebounds.
Cody Doolin added 15 -- all in the second half -- while Tim Derksen chipped in with 10.
USF shot 44.4 percent from the floor and outrebounded the Buccaneers, 38-14.
The Dons seized control of the game a little more than midway through the first half. East Tennesse State held a one point lead at 15-14 with 9:08 left in the first when the Dons went on an 11-0 run to take a 25-10 lead at the 5:31 mark of the first half.
USF led by as many as 14 points in the first half at 32-18 before taking a 32-21 lead into intermission.
Dickerson scored 11 of his 13 first half points over the last 8:57 of the first half.
After ETSU cut the lead to eight at 33-25 with 16:44 left, Doolin hit a pair of three-pointers to key a 10-3 run to boost the Dons lead back to 15 at 43-28 with 13:33 left.
USF was never threatened down the stretch, building as much of a 20-point lead before winning by the final count of 67-49.
Despite coming away with just one win in three games, head coach
Rex Walters was pleased by the team's overall performance.
"We got better in these three games," said Walters. "We know we aren't going to face the likes of San Diego State and Ole Miss in our conference each night, with the exception of the top 2-3 teams. No one is as big and physical as Ole Miss and San Diego State has tremendous speed.
"We hung with San Diego State until the 13 minute mark and we were right in the game with Ole Miss with four minutes left. Now it's a matter of getting over the hump instead of looking at the mountain."
"It was good for us to put together a solid 40 minutes of basketball today. We were committed to making the right play, getting down defensively and keeping them (ETSU) off the glass. When you take good shots, good shooters make them. That's what happened today."
USF will return to action Saturday night when the Dons face Dominican University at Memorial Gymnasium beginning at 7:00 p.m.
