{"id":125886,"date":"2026-01-21T04:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T04:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/125886\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T04:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T04:25:10","slug":"strong-first-half-pushes-usf-past-east-carolina-the-crows-nest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/125886\/","title":{"rendered":"Strong first half pushes USF past East Carolina \u2013 The Crow’s Nest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo by Alex Felski | The Crow\u2019s Nest<\/p>\n

By Dominic Feo<\/p>\n

Not even five minutes into the University of South Florida\u2019s Jan. 14 game against East Carolina University, forward Daimion Collins<\/a> emphatically blocked a layup before running down court and hitting his first catch-and-shoot three of the season.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two-way play by Collins perfectly encapsulated the Bulls 82-71 win at the Yuengling Center. USF making half of their three-point shots in the first half gave the Bulls an early lead that the team maintained by forcing 13 turnovers defensively.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

USF scored 20 points off turnovers while limiting ECU to just five.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Guard Josh Omojafo<\/a> led the team in scoring with 18 points. Aside from a three-pointer for USF\u2019s first points of the night, he dropped 11 of the team\u2019s last 13 points in the last three minutes of the first half to give the Bulls a commanding 44-31 lead.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Josh Omojafo during the USF\u2019s 82-71 win over East Carolina University\u00a0
Photo by Alex Felski | The Crow\u2019s Nest<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really set the tone for my team just to give us that little fire and that little\u00a0Edge to keep going,\u201d Omojafo said during thepostgame press conference.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Omojafo was one of five Bulls who finished the game with over ten points.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEast Carolina has obviously had their struggles this year, but they\u2019ve got two really good basketball players in Gio [Emejuru] and Jordan Riley, that you have the game plan around,\u201d head coach Bryan Hodgson said. \u201cWe like to think that we\u2019ve got five or six that you\u2019re going to have to build a defensive game plan around.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Izaiyah Nelson during USF\u2019s 82-71 win over East Carolina University\u00a0
Photo by Alex Felski\u00a0| The Crow\u2019s Nest<\/p>\n

Izaiyah Nelson<\/a> is listed as a forward. Surrounded by guards under 6 \u20186 in the starting lineup, he has been the de facto center for the Bulls this season. Nelson has played that role at an All-Conference level, leading the American Conference in field goal percentage (63.3) and rebounds per game (10).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nelson tied for second in points (14) and led the team in rebounds (7).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Wes Enis celebrating a made three-pointer during USF\u2019s 82-71 win over East Carolina University.\u00a0
Photo by Alex Felski\u00a0| The Crow\u2019s Nest<\/p>\n

After scoring three points by halftime, guard Wes Enis<\/a> also finished with 14 points. His streaky outing was reminiscent of his play against conference opponents this season. The senior transfer from Lincoln Memorial University finished USF\u2019s first three conference games against UAB, North Texas, and Tulsa with 36, 3 and 32 points, respectively.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now with a 3-1 conference record, USF\u2019s next few games will be an opportunity to establish itself as a contender for the American Conference Championship.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\t Post Views: 34 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\"More<\/a>
Written by: Dominic Feo<\/a> on January 20, 2026.
Last revised by: Alisha Durosier<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo by Alex Felski | The Crow\u2019s Nest By Dominic Feo Not even five minutes into the University…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-125886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}