Chris Youngblood had 29 points and five assists and No. 24 South Florida won its 15th straight game, beating Tulane 85-72 on Tuesday night.
Kasean Pryor scored 13 points and Selton Miguel added 12 for the Bulls (23-5, 16-1 American Athletic Conference), the conference's regular-season champions. USF was playing its first home game and second overall as a team ranked in the Top 25 in the program's half-century history.
“Just really proud of this group,” first-year USF coach Amir Abdur-Rahim said. “They just keep responding. Their resolve just keeps showing up.”
Jaylen Forbes scored 24 points for Tulane (13-16, 4-13), which has lost seven straight, the team's longest losing streak since an eight-game skid in 2019-20.
Forbes picked up his fourth foul with 5:49 to play and Tulane trailing 69-67. After USF's Brandon Stroud made a layup, Forbes went to the bench and the Bulls got two baskets from Youngblood and a 3-pointer from Stroud for a 78-67 lead.
Tulane was held without a field goal over the game's final three minutes.
“Focused on getting stops because they were scoring a little more than we would like, and we know once we get our defense going there’s no telling what we can do from there,” Youngblood said.
Youngblood scored 12 points as USF took a 44-43 lead at halftime. Forbes shot 5 for 7 from 3-point range and had 17 points in a first half that featured 13 lead changes.
Big picture
Tulane: Entered 20th in the nation in scoring at 82.6 points, but were allowing 80.
South Florida: Is poised to make its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2012 after winning its first regular-season conference championship. This is just the second winning season for the Bulls since 2012. USF has reached the tourney three times.
Spreading the word
Abdur-Rahim had a message for naysayers of the AAC.
“All these people who do the net rankings or whatever, man, you come spend a night in the American Conference, ok,” Abdur-Rahim said. “Our league is dang good, top to bottom. Our league is one of the best in the country.”
Hard contact
Forbes and Miguel collided six minutes into the game and were down on the floor for a period of time. Both returned after missing a few minutes.
Milestone within reach
Forbes has 1,830 career points and is 12 away from passing John Williams for fourth place in Tulane history.
Up next
Tulane: Ends the season Friday night at home against Wichita State.
South Florida: Closes the regular season at Tulsa on Saturday night.
