Bulls cruise past Georgia Southern

Posted Nov 24, 2011 by Adam Adkins

Updated Nov 24, 2011 at 12:52 AM

USF had little trouble Wednesday night getting past Georgia Southern, even with its second leading scorer and rebounder sitting out while resting a shoulder injury.

Senior forward Ron Anderson Jr. picked up the slack on the inside with fellow senior Augustus Gilchrist out by scoring a game-high 17 points, freshman point guard Anthony Collins had a solid debut with four points and six assists in 21 minutes, and the Bulls ended a two-game losing streak with a 66-46 victory at the St. Pete Times Forum.

Anderson went 7-for-8 from the floor, including 5-for-5 from in the first half, to finish one point shy of his career high, which could have been eclipsed had he done better from the free-throw line (3-for-11).

“Honestly, tonight was the way I’ve been trying to play all season,” Anderson said. “I think the past couple of games I haven’t really done as much as I can, what I could, and going out today I just really wanted kind of assert myself on the offensive end.”

Collins, who missed the opening five games while nursing a hamstring injury, provided an immediate spark off the bench in 11 first-half minutes, dishing out five assists and beating the buzzer on a layup on his first career field goal.

“It finally felt good to play today and get some rust off and do whatever I could to help my team win,” Collins said.

The Bulls (4-2) led by as many as 17 in the first half, but Georgia Southern (1-3) closed on an 8-0 run before intermission to make it a 31-22 game. However, USF scored the opening nine points of the second half to quickly push the lead back to 18 and led by as many as 23 in the second half, while the Eagles never were able to cut the deficit again to single digits.

“At halftime we really challenged the guys and said we’ve really got to set the tone in these first four minutes, and we’ve got to let them know that this is our house and we’re the better team,” USF coach Stan Heath said. “I thought our guys responded in a big way.”

Victor Rudd and Blake Nash each added nine points and LaVonte Dority and Shaun Noriega eight apiece for the Bulls.