Jose Fernandez ties AAC career wins record as USF women top East Carolina

TAMPA — A team that seems to be standing at the doorstep of greatness helped its coach cross history’s threshold Tuesday night.

Though turnover prone at times, the 25th-ranked USF women (21-4, 10-0 American Athletic Conference) pulled away by holding East Carolina (14-8, 5-4) without a field goal in the final seven minutes in a 72-48 romp before a Yuengling Center audience of 2,184.

The triumph was the 118th career American Athletic Conference victory for Bulls veteran coach Jose Fernandez, tying the league mark held by longtime friend Geno Auriemma of Connecticut, which moved back to the reconfigured Big East in 2020. Fernandez can claim the record outright with a win Saturday afternoon at SMU.

“Well, hopefully (Auriemma) sends me a nice bottle of wine,” joked Fernandez, whose team also can tie the 2020-21 squad for the best league start in program history with a win Saturday.

“You don’t do this on your own. Look at these guys that I get the pleasure to coach every day, and I’ve had the pleasure to coach some really, really good guys. In this business, you’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with.

“So it’s a total team effort. The accolades are good, comes with it, but I’ve been doing it a long time. But sometimes you take a step back and, ‘Wow.’”

The Bulls’ defensive dominance down the stretch was preceded by some offensive sloppiness caused in part by East Carolina’s 3-2 zone and traps behind half court. Nearly halfway through the third period, the Bulls had more turnovers (two) than field goals (one) in the quarter, allowing the Pirates to trim their deficit to 35-32.

But 6-foot-1 FSU transfer Sammie Puisis sank a 3-pointer — one of a career-best seven on the night — and 5-foot-11 freshman Carlo Brito was fouled on an ensuing 3-pointer for a four-point play, pushing the Bulls’ lead to 42-32.

The Bulls’ lead never dipped below eight the rest of the way. USF scored 17 of the game’s last 23 points as East Carolina missed its final 10 shot attempts (including two that were blocked).

“It was kind of the first time we’ve seen a defense like that, so we were just not valuing the basketball,” said Puisis, who led all scorers with 23 points and finished 7-of-14 from long range. “The first half, we’re going to get everybody’s best punch, so credit to them to hang in with us, but halftime is when we really came out and fixed what we needed to fix.”

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Brito had eight of her 20 points in the first period as USF built an early 13-point lead. Six-foot-4 senior Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu recorded her seventh consecutive double-double (13 points, 14 rebounds) and 19th of the season.

“It’s pretty good that you feel you didn’t play well, but you held somebody to late 40s and you won by 24,” said Fernandez, whose club has won four games in the last 10 days, three by double digits.

“But again — and these guys know — I’m coaching every possession, and that’s what it’s going to take for us to be great at the end of February and March.”

Contact Joey Knight at jknight@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Bulls.

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