Wes Enis and Joseph Pinion each scored 24 points to lead South Florida over Charlotte in American Conference men’s basketball tournament semifinals on Saturday.
The No. 1 seed Bulls (24-8) advance to the American tournament title game at 3:15 p.m. Sunday against the winner of the other semifinal between Wichita State and Tulsa.
The tournament champion earns an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
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 3-point shots made.
The No. 5 seed 49ers (17-17) kept up with USF’s fast tempo early and trailed by only seven at the half.
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.
USF went on an 18-5 run, highlighted by a steal and dunk by Pinion, to take an 18-point lead with 4:50 remaining.
The Bulls, who had a bye into the semifinals, had 12 steals and 22 points off turnovers.
"As long as we stuck with our game plan and stuck with who we are on defense, connected, talk, max effort, great closeouts and finish plays that we weren't going to allow that same outcome (as first half), and we held them to 38% in the second half and 34% for the game," USF coach Bryan Hodgson said.
"Credit to these guy (players). They knew how well Charlotte was playing and we talked about it a bunch, and they made an effort and a point to make sure that that wasn't going to happen to us."
American Player of the Year Izaiyah Nelson finished with 16 points and eight rebounds for USF. Josh Omojafo led the Bulls with nine rebounds.
"We have a lot of guys that can score the basket 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."
Anton Bonke, a 7-foot-2 center from the Pacific island of Vanuatu, led Charlotte with 15 points and nine rebounds.
USF goes into Sunday’s title game on a 10-game winning streak.
"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.
