Box Score
SAN FRANCISCO - USF's 77-69 win over American University on Sunday had the look and feel of a WCC game and with the conference season opening in less than a week, the Dons can only hope for more of the same results in the weeks ahead.
Avry Holmes had a team-high 15 points while
Tim Derksen and
Cole Dickerson contributed 13 and 11 points, respectively to pace the Dons to the seventh win of the season over a pesky Eagle team.
Junior
Gavin Hoffmann played a season-high 18 minutes off the bench and finished with five points, three rebounds and three assists.
Derksen was 5-of-6 from the field and is shooting at 80 percent (28-for-35) over his last six games.
American (3-7) was led by Jason Schoof, who scored 22 points while Jesse Reed added 16 for American.
Matt Glover,
Chris Adams and
Kruize Pinkins contrinuted nine points each to a balanced USF scoring column.
The Dons made 7-of-12 three-pointers and shot a season-high 60.9 percent from the field to defeat the Eagles for the second straight season. American outrebounded USF, 29-24.
The two teams were never separated by more than five points until late in the game, when the Dons scored six straight points to turn a 64-63 lead into a 70-63 advantage with 1:29 left. Glover scored four of his nine points on back-to-back lay-ups to give the Dons some breathing room.
Following an Eagle timeout, Glover stripped Jesse Reed and which led to a pair of Holmes' free throws that gave the Dons a 70-63 lead with 1:29 left.
The Eagles could get no closer than five points down the stretch before the Dons won by the final count of 77-69.
USF led by as many as 12 points in the first half at 31-19 but American outscored the Dons 11-2 to whittle the lead down to three at intermission at 33-30.
Rex Walters' Post-Game Comments
"I thought our guys have a gutsy, locked in performance because there are so many distractions when you are getting to ready to go home for the holidays. We were hard to guard today."
"We could not have won this game without
Gavin Hoffmann. I told him when we got off the bus after St. John's to be ready today and he was. He made a nice corner three for us and a layup. Defensively, we had to have him on the floor. He's got a great understanding for what we want to do and as a junior, he's been around the block. Get used to seeing him a little bit more."
"He's (
Tim Derksen) still early into his career and he is really a gutsy kid. I'm still a little bit mad at him because he beat me in some shooting contests yesterday and I'm still not really talking to him. But he really gave a gutsy effort today on both ends of the floor."
"Avry has been thrust into a starting point guard position and he's handling it really well. He's going to make mistakes but that's part of the process. He's got great ability."
