Houston’s comeback kings struck again on Saturday.
For the sixth time in the Bulls’ historic nine-game conference winning streak, USF overcame a halftime deficit to defeat Rice 69-65 on Saturday because to the scoring of Chris Youngblood, who finished with 24 points, 19 of which came in the second half.
Before winning in the last minute on Thursday, USF trailed Charlotte for more than 39 minutes. And it was following after a January road victory over then-No. 10 Memphis, which saw them overcome a 20-point deficit.
Tied with the 1982–83 squad, it’s USF’s second-longest winning run overall and its longest in the conference.
The Bulls continued to lead the American Athletic Conference after improving to 17-5 for the first time in the team’s history and 10-1 overall. Their ten conference victories rank second in program history, behind only the 2011–12 squad’s twelve victories during USF’s Big East tenure.
The Bulls were behind 38-25 at the half, but with 15:37 remaining in the game, they were up 44-43 thanks to a 19-5 run that began the second half and saw Youngblood score eight points. With 2:36 left, the Owls (9-15, 3-8) made a comeback to equalize the score. However, with 1:59 left, Youngblood made his sixth and final 3-pointer to give USF the lead for good, 68-65.
Youngblood shot 8 of 14 (six of seven from three-point range). Selton Miguel and teammate Kasean Pryor both had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Travis Evee gave Rice a score of 20.
On Wednesday at 7 p.m. (ESPNU), the Bulls make their way back to the Yuengling Center to take on Tulsa.