ESTERO, Fla. -- The Dons managed to shoot just 25.4 percent from the floor Tuesday night against Florida Gulf Coast and suffered its first setback of the season, 62-47 in the semifinals of the Gulf Coast Showcase.

With the loss, USF falls to 3-1 on the season and will face Evansville, which dropped a 64-62 decision to Green Bay, in Wednesday night's consolation game beginning at 3:00 p.m. Pacific. 

Mark Tollefsen scored a team-high 16 points for USF while Montray Clemons also reached double figures with 10 points. Kruize Pinkins was plagued with early four trouble and managed just five points in 13 minutes of action. Tim Derksen, who scored a career best 21 points in Monday night's win over Hawaii, was 0-for-9 from the field and finished with three points but grabbed a game high 10 rebounds. 

Bernard Thompson scored a game high 20 points for Florida Gulf Coast, which improved to 5-0 with the victory.

The Dons, who came into the game shooting 52.7 percent from the floor, were as ice cold as Germain Arena itself, which serves as the home of the Florida Everblades of the ECHL. USF's 25.4 percent shooting from the floor included a 3-for-13 (23.1) effort from three-point range and 38.9 percent shooting from the line. While Tollefsen was a respectable 6-of-11 from the field, the four other starters combined to go 3-for-27. 

USF held the Eagles to just 62 points on 37 percent shooting from the floor, numbers on any other night that might have led to a different outcome.

The Dons enjoyed a 15-12 lead in the first half but were outscored 14-3 over the final 7:17 of the first half and trailed at intermission, 26-18.

The Eagles blitzed the Dons with a 12-2 run to take a 38-20 lead four minutes into the second half and led by as many as 26 points at 60-34 with 4:37 remaining.

Rex Walters' Post-Game Comments

"We had seven assists and 15 turnovers tonight against a team that doesn't pressure or trap. Yes, we missed some shots we normally would make. Their length gave us some problems. I give them a lot ot credit. They have some guys who have played in the NCAA Tournament and we don't. Tonight was a lesson for us."

"People will look at the shooting stats and they're awful, no doubt about it. But we didn't hit the open man tonight and it cost us."

"Our defense was really good, actually. I looked up at the score at one point and thought we were still in the game, even as bad as we were shooting it. Our transition defense wasn't great but it as good enough to win. They got some second shots, 15 offense rebounds is a lot."

"We had too many guys trying to be heroes tonight and that's not how we play. The strength of our team is our unselfishness. We weren't very smart or together tonight."