Peter Filipovity had a career-high 23 points, and Maine never trailed on Wednesday night in a 70-59 men’s basketball win over the University of South Florida at the Yuengling Center in Tampa.
Maine (4-3) scored the first six points of the game, and an early eight points from Ja’Shone Wright-McLeish including a pair of three-pointers had them up 12-4 not even five minutes in. South Florida (2-2) battled back to tie it with an 8-0 run at 12-12, but the visitors responded with a 12-1 spurt capped off by a three-pointer by Quirion Burns to make it 24-13. The Bulls pushed back once again to even it at 29-29, before a jumper in the lane by Jaden Clayton in the final seconds gave the Black Bears the lead for good at 31-29 at halftime. Maine began the second half on another run of 7-0 to extend the advantage back to nine, and USF never got closer than six after that trailing by as many as 13.
Filipovity had a double double as he also added 12 rebounds, two assists, and three steals to his point total in the Maine win. The Black Bears are now 3-1 on their current six game road trip, as they shot 49% from the floor and 43% from the three-point arc (6-14). Wright-McLeish finished with 16 points, while Clayton also got into double figures with 14 points and five assists. Chris Youngblood had 17 points and Kasean Pryor had 12 in the loss for South Florida out of the American Athletic Conference. The Bulls shot just 35% from the field, and 2-20 (10%) from three-point land. Maine, who came in as 8.5 point underdogs to USF, will continue the trip when they battle Columbia from the Ivy League on Saturday at 1 p.m. in New York.
Recap by Chris Lessner
