S. Florida beats Tulane 80-75 for first conference win

Jan 26, 2018, 04:43 am

NEW ORLEANS -- Stephan Jiggetts scored 23 points, Terrence Samuel added 16 with a career-high 12 rebounds, and South Florida nearly blew a 23-point lead but held off Tulane 80-75 on Thursday night to win its first American Conference game of the season and snap a seven-game skid.

It's the first conference road win for the Bulls (8-13, 1-7) since Feb. 16, 2016 at ECU (69-52), and they have surpassed their seven-win total for the entire 2016-17 season.

Payton Banks scored 14 points and a career-high 10 rebounds and Justin Brown added 10 points for the Bulls, who led 31-22 at halftime, but missed 6 of 16 free throws in the final 1:27 under the Green Wave's pressure defense.

The Bulls pulled ahead 48-29 in the second half and led by 23 with 7 minutes left after Samuel and Brown hit back-to-back 3s. Tulane closed to 71-63 on Samir Sehic's 3 with 1:27 to go, then trailed by three on Jordan Cornish's layup with 10 seconds left. Jiggetts blocked Colin Slater's 3, then ran out the clock to seal it.

Sehic scored 23 points, Ray Ona Embo had 15, Cameron Reynolds 11, and Slater and Melvin Frazier 10 apiece for Tulane (12-8, 3-5), which has lost four of its last five.