The NCAA Women’s Final Four is three weeks away at Tampa’s Amalie Arena, and the South Florida Bulls are quite aware they have a chance to play for a national title on a hometown court.
The surging Bulls earned that opportunity by win the American Athletic Conference tournament on Wednesday night in Fort Worth, Texas, earning an automatic bid to the 68-team NCAA tournament.
Vittoria Blasigh scored 20 points and Carla Brito added 17 to lead USF past Rice, 69-62, reaching the NCAAs for the 10th time during Coach Jose Fernandez’s 25 years at the school.
“When I got here, (Fernandez) told me we're going to go to an NCAA tournament, and I told him I believed him,” said Mama Dembele, a grad student from Spain who transferred to USF from Missouri. “Here we are. So, I'm the happiest person alive right now.”
The Bulls (23-10) will find out who and where they're playing in the first round during Sunday’s selection show, which begins at 8 p.m. on ESPN.
After a 2-2 start, USF the rest of the way, although defending AAC champion Rice pulled within 62-57 with 40 seconds left. But the Bulls closed out the win by making seven of eight free throws.
“I really wanted to win this conference tournament,” said Blasigh, sophomore guard from Italy. “And I mean, now we have to play the March Madness, which is amazing and, as Mama said, like, we're going to play and try to fight and win.”
Brito, a junior from Spain, was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
“I mean, from the beginning, we say this is the last chance that we have to go to March Madness, so this team is working really, really hard,” Brito said. “The work is not done, so we're going to go there (NCAAs) and fight for everything.”
The Bulls had a difficult start to the season, but it included six loses against challenging nonconference foes Connecticut, Vanderbilt, Louisville, Mississippi State, Texas Christian, South Carolina and Duke. Four of those opponents were ranked in the AP Top 25 at the time.
USF rolled to 12 victories in their last 14 games, although the two loses to teams outside the top 100 rankings concerned Fernandez.
“This is a special group, a special group that had to win three games in three days,” Fernandez said. “There was a lot of disappointment, us losing on the road at Tulsa and then losing at home to East Carolina and playing ourselves out of the at-large (NCAA) conversation. So, I think they came to Fort Worth with a purpose and it showed.”
USF topped Tulane and North Texas in Fort Worth to get to the championship game.
“I'm very happy that they were resilient after the month of November and December, and they found a way to finish the job and that's what they did.”
USF reached the NCAAs three straight years before last year’s absence. Although, it was another absence on Fernandez’s mind: good friend Amir Abdur Rahim, the USF men’s coach who died in October at age 43.
“We have worn Amir's initials on our sleeve and on our uniforms all year, and I know he's looking from above, and he's very happy about this group of young ladies,” he said.
