The USF men’s basketball team opened their 2016-17 season in an exhibition matchup with Nova Southeastern University. The Bulls were led by redshirt freshman forward, Tulio Da Silva, with 26 points. The 6-7 Da Silva racked up the first double-double of his career by bringing down 16 rebounds. Freshman, Michael Bibby, and sophomore, Troy Holston, covered the guard duties in the absence of preseason all-conference team selectee, Jahmal McMurray. McMurray is serving a six game suspension for violating undisclosed team rules. Holston and Bibby picked up the slack, with 15 and 12 points apiece, respectively.
The Sharks took the lead early and led for the first three minutes of the game. With 16:13 left in the first half, junior forward, Bo Ziegler, gave USF their first lead of the game with a layup. From there on, it was all Bulls, who had leads of up to 19 before going into halftime leading 40-31. They also led all of the second half, hitting 15 point leads on multiple occasions. Holston scored 10 of his 15 points in the second half.
For Nova Southeastern, it was a strong performance in the paint by senior center, Harrison Goodrick, who led his team with 25 points and 12 rebounds. Junior forward, Lukas Landgren, put up 13 for the Sharks.
The Bulls will host the Florida A&M Rattlers on Friday at 7 PM at the Sun Dome to begin regular season play.
