TAMPA, Fla. –  A 12-0 South Florida run in the second half proved to be too much to overcome as Wichita State dropped its seventh straight game, 72-68, at the Yuengling Center Sunday afternoon.

Turnovers plagued Wichita State (8-10, 0-5) once again in key moments. The Shockers finished with 14, eight of them coming in the second half.

Harlond Beverly scored a team-high 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting and added six rebounds. Xavier Bell was solid off the bench with 14 points and eight rebounds. Kenny Pohto added 12 and Colby Rogers finished with 11, but was just 1-of-8 from three-point range.

Wichita State missed 17 of its 19 three-point attempts, but still shot 49.1 percent from the field. USF shot 40 percent overall and 6-of-25 from deep. The Bulls converted 18-of-21 attempts from the free throw line where they were plus-8 over the Shockers.

Kasean Pryor came in averaging 25.0 points over his last two games, and put up 25 and 10 rebounds against Wichita State. The Shockers held USF's leading scorer and the nation's fifth-best three-pointer shooter Selton Miguel to only four points on 1-of-8 shooting and 0-for-4 from three.

The first 15:00 minutes of the game was a back-and-forth affair that featured a largest lead of four. It wasn't until an 8-0 Wichita State run with 4:18 left that the Shockers grabbed an eight-point lead. The run was ignited on an alley-oop between Rogers and Beverly.

USF immediately responded with five straight points on a pair of free throws and a transition three-pointer.

With less than 2:00 minutes until halftime, USF cut it to 33-32 behind four straight points at the free throw line from Kasean Pryor. Beverly would cap the half on a USF turnover and layup to make it 35-32.

Beverly (11) and Bell (9) combined to score 20 of Wichita State's 35 first half points. Beverly was 4-for-5 from the field and Bell was a perfect 4-of-4 off the bench. Despite going 1-for-9 from three-point range, Wichita State still shot 50 percent from the field. The Bulls were just 10-of-29 on their field goal attempts and 3-of-13 from long range.

Wichita State held a 41-37 3:00 minutes into the second half only to see USF score the next seven points, all coming off Wichita State turnovers, to take a 44-41 lead and forcing a Wichita State timeout.

The Bulls extended their run following the timeout to 12-0, grabbing their largest lead of the game, 49-41. Over the first 8:00 minutes to begin the second half, USF had outscored Wichita State, 17-6, behind six Shocker turnovers.

Finally a Rogers pull-up jumper stopped the bleeding but not until USF had opened up a 12-point margin.

Wichita State didn't pack it up when things got tough in that 4:00 minute drought. They clawed all the way back with the help of a six-point possession. Pohto converted a tough layup and was fouled on a flagrant-1. After two made free throws Wichita State got the ball back and Rogers promptly cashed in a 15-footer to turn an 11-point deficit to just five.

Back-to-back scores from Pohto and Ronnie DeGray III trimmed the USF lead to 64-61 with 4:20 remaining. Two free throws upped the lead back to five, but Bell's only triple of the night was huge, pulling Wichita State within a pair, 66-64.

USF immediately answered with a driving layup. Bell came right back with 40 seconds left to make it a one-possession game yet again. Needing a stop on the defensive end, Pryor delivered a shot clock beating jumper with 17 seconds on the clock.

After a Beverly layup pulled the Shockers back within two and eight seconds left, Wichita State sent Pryor to the line and only 3.2 ticks remaining. He would knock them both down to ice the game.

Up Next
Wichita State is back in the Roundhouse Wednesday night to host the East Carolina Pirates at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN+.