South Florida's signature 3-point shooting pushed the Bulls within one win of ending a couple of long postseason droughts.
Wes Enis and Joseph Pinion each scored 24 points in an 86-64 victory over Charlotte in American Conference men’s basketball tournament semifinals Saturday in Birmingham.
The No. 1 seed Bulls (24-8) advance to the tournament title game at 3:15 p.m. Sunday against No. 2 seed Wichita State, an 81-68 victor over No. 3 Tulsa.
A Bulls victory secures their first conference tournament championship since 1990, when they were in the Sun Belt Conference. More importantly, it would earn the program's first NCAA tournament bid since 2012.
A USF loss would send the Shockers (22-10) to "the dance" and begin an anxious wait for word on an at-large bid from the NCAA Selection Committee. That's not a given.
"We got here for a reason," USF coach Bryan Hodgson said. "This is a very connected team. They understand our team goals, and it's not a coincidence that we're here."
Enis and Pinion combined to go 10-for-21 from beyond the arc. The pair are USF’s all-time best 3-point shooters – Pinion with 106 and Enis with 104 – and among the nation’s leaders in that category.
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"We have a lot of guys that can score in a lot of different ways," Pinion said. "That's just something where they can't key on one specific guy, and I feel like it helps me get open."
The No. 5 seed 49ers (17-17) played strong defense to keep up with USF’s fast tempo over the first 13 minutes. The Bulls then went on a 11-2 run on three consecutive 3-point baskets by Enis, Pinion and Enis for an 11-point lead at the 4:03 mark.
The Bulls, who never trailed, led by seven at the half, 40-33.
As a team, USF shot 41 percent from 3-point range. The success opened up the interior for the Bulls later in the game as the the fatigue from playing on three consecutive days caught up with Charlotte.
Izaiyah Nelson scored seven points on a 15-1 run – sealed by a steal and dunk by Pinion – to put USF ahead 67-50 with 7:54 in the game.
The Bulls ended with 12 steals and 22 points off turnovers.
"We started off OK," Hodgson said. "I thought we gave them some stretches there in the first half where we got a little goofy defensively, and at the same time, we allowed our shot selection to get a little goofy. But we stepped up when it counted."
Nelson, the American Conference Player of the Year, finished with 16 points and eight rebounds for USF. Josh Omojafo led the Bulls with nine rebounds.
"We took over the rebounding battle, because I think the under-8 (minutes) media (timeout it) was tied," Hodgson said. "We ended up taking over the rebounding battle. I told our guys if we could do that, we'd win the game – beat them up on the blue-collar stuff."
Anton Bonke, a 7-foot-2 center from the Pacific island of Vanuatu, led Charlotte with 15 points and nine rebounds. Ben Bradford added 12 points.
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"The pressure that they put on you {can} be very tough," Charlotte coach Aaron Fearne said of USF. "Very, very good in all phases of the game. You've got to really concentrate to really compete with them to put enough pressure back on them."
Hodgson said the 49ers were a much better test than last Sunday, when the Bulls took an season-closing 80-63 triumph in Tampa.
"You could tell they were locked in." Hodgson said about the 49ers. "Obviously, we just played them six days ago. That was a different team than we played six days ago. So I want to give credit to them."
USF goes into its first appearance in the American title game on a 10-game winning streak. Wichita State, however, was responsible for one of the Bulls' three conference losses this season.
In that meeting, Kenyon Giles hit the go-ahead layup with 20 seconds remaining in overtime for an 86-85 win on Jan. 18 in Tampa.
USF won the rematch 66-58 on Feb. 11 in Wichita.
"We just [need to] do what we've been doing all year: lock in on the defense, lock in on the blue-collar stuff and it will all take care of itself," Pinion said.
Sunday’s title game will be televised by ESPN.
The NCAA Selection Show will air on CBS at 6 p.m.
