By | Special correspondent
Published: January 11, 2012 Updated: January 11, 2012 - 12:00 AM
Life on the Big East road wasn't always going to be as easy as the South Florida men's basketball team made it look its last time out.
That was particularly the case against a team that has the fourth-longest home win streak in the country.
The Bulls endured a drought of more than 6 minutes Tuesday night without a basket in a frigid second-half stretch as Notre Dame won its 29th straight at home, 60-49.
USF (9-8, 2-2) was in search of consecutive Big East road wins for only the second time after winning 74-57 at Villanova last Thursday. The Bulls never led on Tuesday night, shooting 34.5 percent after halftime.
"I thought in the second half, we kind of settled and weren't as aggressive," USF coach Stan Heath said. "I think they switched a little more in the second half, kept us in front of them."
The Fighting Irish (11-6, 3-1) used a 14-0 second-half run to turn a narrow 40-37 lead to a 17-point bulge. Jerian Grant had two three-point plays in the burst as the Bulls struggled to get good looks at the basket.
That run was only halted when Jawanza Poland made two free throws with 4 minutes, 11 seconds remaining.
Poland's basket with 3:52 left was the first field goal for USF since Augustus Gilchrist's 3-pointer at the 10:07 mark. The Bulls made 1 of 13 from 3-point territory after shooting 39.1 from beyond the arc in their first three Big East games.
"The only one we made was Gilchrist," Heath said of the 3-point shooting. "We had our center making the only 3 for us tonight, not a good shooting performance for us tonight."
Gilchrist led USF with 13 points and Poland added 12. The Bulls entered averaging a Big East-low 62.1 points per game and finished with a season-low four assists to 13 turnovers.
"We had some layups, we had some open shots," Heath said. "Against a team like Notre Dame, you need to make them."
Jack Cooley led Notre Dame with 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting and was a presence inside defensively. Scott Martin added 15 points and 13 rebounds.
The USF bench produced 48 points against Villanova. Those four players â€" Poland, Ron Anderson Jr., Victor Rudd Jr. and Blake Nash â€" combined for 20 on Tuesday.
"Poland was kind of a lone ranger when it comes to our bench play tonight obviously, except for Anderson," Heath said. "Anderson had 10 rebounds, gave us production from that end. I think that's the strength of our team."
Point guard Anthony Collins showed no ill effects of a concussion suffered in the last game with six points and three assists in 28 minutes.
The Bulls return home for their next game Friday night against No. 24 Seton Hall, which is 15-2 with four straight Big East wins.
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