SAN FRANCISCO --
Cole Dickerson led three Don players in double figures with 28 points as USF posted a 72-61 victory over visiting Vermont in the Golden Gate Challenge being held at Memorial Gymnasium.
Avry Holmes and
Kruize Pinkins both scored 13 points for the Dons which saw their record improve to 5-3 on the season with their second consecutive victory.
Clancy Rugg scored a team-high 13 points for the Catamounts while Brian Voelkel and Sandro Carissimo added 11 each.
Dickerson, who scored 26 points in Wednesday night's win over Sonoma State, was 10-of-14 from the field, including 4-of-4 from three-point range, and made 4-of-8 from the line. He also added five rebounds.
In two games in the Golden Gate Challenge, Dickerson has scored 54 points on 19-for-25 shooting from the floor and has made all seven of his three point tries.
The Dons shot 51 percent from the field compared to 43.8 for the Catamounts. USF also won the battle of the boards, 34-27.
USF used a 10-2 run over the last 4:03 of the first half to turn a 24-20 deficit into a 30-26 halftime lead.
The Dons started quickly in the second half and built a 11 point lead at 41-30 with 15:35 remaining.
The Catamounts then scored the next eight points to cut the lead to 41-38 with 12:18 left but the Dons answered with a 8-2 run to boost the lead back to nine at 49-40 with 9:13 showing.
USF led by just four points at 57-53 with 4:06 left but sealed the game with an 11-2 run that gave the Dons their biggest lead of the game at 68-55 with :54 remaining.
USF will close out the Golden Gate Challenge on Saturday against Illinois State beginning at 8:15 p.m. The game will be preceded by the contest between Sonoma State and Vermont at 6:00 p.m.
Rex Walters Postgame Comments
"I'm proud of our guys. That's a good team even thought they are banged up a bit right now. When they get healthy, they will be scary in their league. It's a program that competes for a conference championship year-in and year-out."
"I thought defensively we were much better tonight.
Cole Dickerson was fantastic as far as scoring the basketball and Kruize was terrific coming off the bench. Avry (Holmes) really responded tonight and even though he didn't score a lot of points,
Chris Adams was solid defensively."
"Kruize has a great nose for the basketball.
Tim Derksen was really good on the defensive glass, as well."
"Cole shot the ball really well, posted up and made his teammates better. We ran a lot of stuff for him obviously and he delivered."
