TAMPA – A lot happened in the final 11.6 seconds of USF’s season. But not anything Bulls coach Stan Heath or his players will want to remember from a 58-57 loss to N.C. State in the first round of the NIT on Tuesday night.

With USF leading 57-56, N.C. State inbounded the ball from underneath its own basket with six seconds left on the shot clock. The inbounds pass was long and nearly a turnover, but N.C. State’s Scott Wood eventually gained control and found a wide-open Richard Howell at the basket for an easy score.

However, by the time Howell scored what turned out to be the game-winning shot, Heath was already at midcourt yelling to the refs that the clock didn’t start in time. The sequence took only 1.3 seconds off the game clock.

After the referees huddled to watch a replay, they ruled the basket counted and that there were eight seconds left in the game.

“I felt they should have stopped the game and took it out again, and the clock never started,’’ Heath said. “I really can’t figure that out. The problem was that they didn’t know what happened soon enough.

“It took everybody a long time to figure out the clock hadn’t started. At the same time, we shouldn’t have had two guys running for the ball. It was just a breakdown – a breakdown that happened at a bad time.’’

Still, with the crowd of 3,502 at the Sun Dome on its feet anticipating last-second heroics, USF had ample time to come away with a victory in its first postseason game in eight years.

The player the Bulls wanted to have the ball, All-Big East junior guard Dominique Jones, dribbled across midcourt.

Instead of taking a last-second shot, Jones elected to pass to Chris Howard with about four seconds remaining, anticipating a double-team.

“I thought he was going to throw it back,’’ Jones said.

As Howard took the pass in the lane and defenders converged, he passed to forward Augustus Gilchrist, whose shot at the buzzer was blocked by Howell.

The deflating sequence ended USF’s season and left blank stares on the players’ faces as they walked off the court for the final time this season.

“It’s tough,’’ Howard said of the loss, one that ended his career. “You don’t want to lose like that. I’m proud of the season we had.’’

In what could be his final game, Jones scored a team-high 24 points. He simply answered “no comment’’ when asked if he would be back next season.

Jones’ decision to pass – his basket with 40.6 seconds left had given the Bulls a 57-56 lead – is one that will be second-guessed by USF fans for a while.

“We wanted to try and keep it out of Jones’ hands,’’ N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe said. “As a basketball player, he made the right pass.’’

N.C. State (20-15) advanced to play UAB in the second round thanks to a career-high 25 points from Dennis Horner, who hit 10 of 16 shots.

USF (20-13) will try to forget the final seconds of a breakthrough season that included 20 wins for only the third time in the program’s 39-year history, and a .500 record in the Big East Conference for the first time.

“It’s a real hard way to lose, but we don’t have anybody to blame but ourselves,’’ Heath said. “The last, probably 30 seconds, was not exactly the way I thought things would go. We had the game in hand. This was a game we should have had, there is no question.’’