Bulls hold on, top Vermont in season opener

Posted Nov 12, 2011 by Adam Adkins

Updated Nov 13, 2011 at 09:00 AM

Vermont coach John Becker thought the basket was good. University of South Florida coach Stan Heath thought it wasn’t. There was no video replay available to provide a definitive answer as to who was right.

In the end, USF held on for a season-opening 61-59 victory Saturday night after a tip-in at the buzzer that would have sent the game to overtime was waved off by the officials, who weren’t able to review the game’s final play on a replay monitor because there were no cameras at the Bob Martinez Center.

“Obviously I wish there was a monitor out there so they could have got the call,” Heath said. “We would have known exactly what happened. I thought the call was right, but until you really look at it I’m not sure anybody will really know.”

The Catamounts had the ball at midcourt with 4 seconds to play. Vermont’s Four McGlynn took the inbounds pass and drove to the basket, but his layup went off the rim. However, Matt Glass came followed up and tipped the ball in, but one referee immediately waved the basket off. After a brief conference by all the officials, the call stood.

Becker, visibly upset over the situation after the game, said it’s “not very often” he’s been in a venue that did not have video replay available, and added he was unaware there was none going to be available. When asked how tough it was not to have the benefit of knowing definitively if the basket was good or not, Vermont’s first-year coach could muster only a one-word response: “Difficult,” he said.

The Bulls had a balanced scoring attack, with four players finishing in double figures. Ron Anderson Jr. led the way with 16 points, while Shaun Noriega had 15 and Augustus Gilchrist and Victor Rudd 12 apiece. USF also shot 61.5 percent from 3-point range (8-for-13) and committed just five turnovers.

But the Bulls also had their troubles, watching a 12-point led midway through the second half get cut to 1 and shooting just 54 percent (13-for-24) from the free throw line, including three misses in the final 77 seconds. Still, Heath was pleased to grab a win in a close game, something that eluded the Bulls countless times last season.

“I think this game can go a long way,” Heath said. “As a coach, you preach, preach, preach free throws, you preach, preach, preach rebounding and closing and finishing things, and I think they learned some big lessons at the end of this game. But at the same time, it’s good to learn the lessons in a win.”

—-The USF women’s basketball team dropped to 0-2 on the season with a 65-61 loss to Arkansas in overtime at the WBI Tip-Off Tournament in Daytona Beach.

Kaneisha Saunders led the Bulls with 16 points, while Andrell Smith added 12 points and nine rebounds and Caitlin Rowe had eight points and 14 rebounds.