South Florida defeats Cincinnati

February 17, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — South Florida is gradually getting the hang of what it takes to compete in the Big East.

Shrugging off a two-game losing streak that raised questions about whether the Bulls have what it takes to remain in contention for a NCAA berth, Dominique Jones and Co. answered with a 65-57 victory over Cincinnati on Tuesday night.

Jones scored 26 points and USF (16-9, 6-7) overcame poor shooting in the first half to avenge last month’s eight-point loss to the Bearcats (15-10, 6-7) in Cincinnati and regain some of its swagger.

“I felt our team stopped talking (about their success),” coach Stan Heath said. “I thought they were more humble and realize that if we’re going to win, it’s going to be a hungry and humble approach. I thought that we got back to that instead of feeling like we have arrived, because we haven’t.”

The Bulls scored the first nine points of the second half to build a 33-23 lead. Cincinnati, coming off a 12-point road win that gave the Bearcats a season sweep of Connecticut, couldn’t get closer than eight the rest of the way.

Jones had 19 points in the second half, 11 of them during the 23-6 run that put USF up 47-29 with nine minutes to go.

Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin called Jones, the third-leading scorer in the Big East, “the best player in the country that the country really doesn’t know about.”

“He’s arguably the best player in our league. He showed it tonight,” Cronin said. “You get 26 points on 12 shots, you’re playing. He played great tonight, and we really didn’t have anybody step up and match him.”

Deonta Vaughn scored 14 points for Cincinnati, but 11 of them came in the final three minutes when the game was out of reach.

Mike Mercer had 12 points and Augustus Gilchrist added 10 for South Florida, which rebounded from road losses to Notre Dame and Marquette that followed a school-record four consecutive victories in conference play.

Cincinnati’s leading scorer, Lance Stephenson, was limited for four points — none after halftime — on 1-for-5 shooting in 20 minutes.