South Florida romps over Villanova

TAMPA - Villanova's offense disappeared Wednesday night as the slumping Wildcats threatened to challenge the scoring low in 11 seasons under coach Jay Wright, falling to South Florida, 65-51, at Tampa Bay Times Forum to finish a season sweep.

Villanova (11-14, 4-9 in Big East) had salvaged a 20-20 tie in an ugly first half. But only the surprising Bulls (16-10, 9-4) broke out of the drought, building a 15-point lead.

Wright was called for a technical foul for arguing a call with 12 minutes, 1 second left in the game, and USF hit all four free throws to build a 10-point lead. Villanova couldn't get any closer the rest of the way.

The Wildcats again played without leading scorer Maalik Wayns, sidelined by a knee injury. His replacement, freshman JayVaughn Pinkston, struggled even by Wednesday's standards, going 1 for 13 from the field. The lowest scoring total under Wright was 40 points, set against Connecticut in his first season in 2002.

Villanova didn't score its 40th point Wednesday until just 1:36 remained in the game.

Maurice Sutton led Villanova with 10 points, and it took a late surge for the Wildcats to finish shooting 30 percent from the field for the game. Villanova's previous scoring low this season had been 57 points. Only by two three-pointers in the final 24 seconds did the Wildcats avoid missing 50 points for the first time in six years.

A year ago, Villanova had never lost to the Bulls, and counting an upset in the Big East tournament in March, the Wildcats have dropped three straight to the Bulls, who also earned a 74-57 win in Philadelphia last month.