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SAN FRANCISCO – Carrying a nine-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, the USF women's basketball team had to withstand a late push by the visiting Pacific Tigers to claim a 67-64 victory on Saturday afternoon at War Memorial at the Sobrato Center.
Pacific outscored USF 14-8 in the final frame, but the Dons (12-9, 6-4 WCC) got a pair of clutch free throws from
Nia Alexander with 16 seconds left before locking down defensively on the other end to close out the win.
Senior guard
Rachel Howard registered a game-high 28 points - two shy of her career high - on 9-of-17 from the floor, while going 3-of-6 from distance to post her fifth consecutive 20-plus point performance. In the process, Howard surpassed Lindsey Huff (1997-02) for 19th on USF's all-time scoring list with 1,122 career points.
Howard also grabbed a game-best eight rebounds, led the team with four assists and went 7-for-7 from the line.
Not to be outdone, junior guard
Anna Seilund tallied 18 points on a 6-for-11 shooting day that included 4-of-6 from the perimeter.
"For Anna and I, it really helps when our threes are on because it opens up the drive and even more three-pointers," Howard said.
True to form coming from a matchup of the conference's top three-point shooting teams, it was a long distance display coming out of the gates. The two teams combined for eight threes over the first six minutes and a total of 19 on the day.
Pacific (8-13, 4-6 WCC) went 5-for-8 from the perimeter in the first quarter to lead 23-19 at the end of the opening period.
USF trailed by as much as six in the second quarter before going on a 12-4 run over the final seven minutes of the half, highlighted by back-to-back threes by Seilund and Howard that helped put the Dons ahead 36-34 at the intermission.
Howard and Seilund, who each had 14 points by halftime, accounted for 28 of the Dons' 36 first-half points.
The Dons stayed hot coming out of the break as they shot 66 percent in the third quarter and closed out the period making 5-of-7 to start inching away with a 59-50 lead.
However, Pacific quickly forced a shift in the momentum as the Tigers scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to start cutting into USF's lead. Ameela Li's three-pointer with just under two minutes to go trimmed the USF advantage to one at 65-64. USF went scoreless over three minutes down the stretch as they tried to counter the Tigers' full court press until Alexander got fouled and converted both free throw tries to give the Dons some breathing room and their final 67-64 edge. Pacific was unable to get a clean shot off before the final buzzer.
"We've really been learning, especially during conference, how to close out games," Howard added. "If you look at other games they've all been so close, so I think this year in conference is really going to be about finishing games."
USF used a 36-29 rebounding advantage – including a 15-9 edge on the offensive glass – to outscore the Tigers 17-4 on second chance opportunities.
Pacific didn't have a chance to employ its conference-leading 78 percent free throw shooting as the Tigers had just three free throw attempts in the game.
Emily Simons led Pacific with 14 points and six rebounds, while Chelsea Lidy added 11 and Geanna Luaulu-Summers scored 10 to round out the Tigers in double figures.
The Dons travel to Southern California for a pair of road contests starting with a 7 p.m. matchup at Pepperdine on Thursday, followed by a 2 p.m. matinee at Loyola Marymount on Saturday.
Watch the full game archive on TheW.tv:
Tickets are available for USF's Hall of Fame dinner to be held on Feb. 3 at the McLaren Conference Center on campus. Former women's basketball standout Tami Adkins '93 joins Eduardo Rangel '66 (men's soccer), Patrick McGuigan '06 (baseball), James Hardy '78 (men's basketball), and Dr. Sandee Hill (special category) as the 2017 class of inductees into the Father Hubert "Hub" Flynn Hall of Fame. Click here to purchase your tickets today.
