South Florida improves to 24-5 on the year and 13-1 in the American Athletic Conference, while the Mustangs fall to 15-9 overall and 6-6 in league play.
With the victory, the Bulls win The American regular season title and earn the No. 1 seed in the upcoming American Athletic Conference Tournament, March 6-9, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
South Florida trailed by as many as eight points, 19-11, midway through the first quarter before using a 6-0 run, capped by a Daniela Gonzalez three-point shot, to cut the SMU lead to two points, 19-17, after 10 minutes of play.
The Mustangs looked to pull away in the second quarter, extending their lead to seven, however, the Bulls put together another run, this time a 7-0 stretch, which culminated with a Fankam Mendjiadeu three-point play to tie the game at 26-all with just under six minutes left in the half. It wasn’t until Tsineke hit a driving hook shot from inside the lane at the buzzer that South Florida regained the lead, 33-31, and never looked back the rest of the night.
The Bulls started the second half scoring 13 of the first 16 points and pushed their advantage to as many as 12 points in the third quarter, 46-34, on a Puisis layup with five minutes left, and then to as many as 18 points, 62-44, on one of Puisis’ three treys on the night with just over four minutes left in the contest.
South Florida blew the game open in the final quarter on 58.3 percent (7-of-12) shooting from the field, including 75.0 percent (3-for-4) from behind the three-point arc.
Aerial Wilson handed out eight of the Bulls’ 15 assists on the night.