Jespersen, No. 22 South Florida women beat Tulane 62-53

Jan 4, 2017, 10:39 pm

NEW ORLEANS -- Maria Jespersen had 13 points and 10 rebounds, Laia Flores added 10 points, five assists and a career-high six steals and No. 22 South Florida beat Tulane 62-53 on Wednesday night.

It was the fifth double-double in the last six games for Jespersen, who made 5 of 8 from the field. The rest of the Bulls shot just 33.9 percent (19 of 56).

Kolby Morgan's layup gave Tulane (10-5, 1-1 American Athletic Conference) a three-point lead, but Ariadna Pujol hit a jumper, Kitija Laksa made a 3 and Jespersen had back-to-back buckets to make it 35-29 with 4:43 left in the third quarter and USF (12-1) led the rest of the way.

Tene Thompson's layup pulled the Green Wave within two about a minute later, but South Florida used a 16-4 run to make it 51-37 with 7:47 to play and led by double figures until Morgan's 3 with 20 seconds left capped the scoring. Jespersen hit two 3-pointers and Tulane made just 1 of 9 shots during the run.

Leslie Vorpahl led the Green Wave with 16 points, on 7-of-11 shooting, and five assists.