Tampa, Florida-The Cabral Huff Era of Edward Waters men's basketball opened on Thursday evening with an exhibition contest against the NCAA Division I Bulls of USF Bulls at the Yuengling Center. The Tigers had a strong start to the contest, but the Bulls proved to be too much, running away with a 94-49 victory on their home floor.

Edward Waters started the contest with a lead of as much as seven points in the early goings of the contest, but South Florida was able to quickly capture and hold the lead for the remainder of the contest. Down by 21 late in the first half, EWU went on a strong run to cut the deficit to 14 at the end of the first half, trailing 42-28 at the break.

The second half was thoroughly dominated by USF, starting the half of an 11-0 run over the first five minutes of the half. Edward Waters could only come as close as 29 points of the lead, but the Bulls denied the Tigers upset bid, walking away with a 45 point victory.  

After shooting a respectable 42% from the field in the first half, the second half was not too kind to the visitors, shooting just 21%. Turnovers also did not help the Tigers cause in the game as 20 EWU turnovers turned into 26 USF points. For the contest, USF outshot EWU 54% to 32%, dominated three-point shooting 40% to 18%, and took a 52-23 edge in rebounding including a 16-4 advantage on the offensive glass.

Junior point guard Cahlib Edwards led the Tigers efforts in the contest with 15 points in 27 minutes of action, to go along with two rebounds, an assist, and a steal. Elon University transfer junior guard R. J. Noord finished with 10 points for the Tigers on 5-of-13 shooting, with three rebounds and an assist.

The Tigers will officially open the 2023-24 contest on Saturday, November 11th in a road contest at Lee University at 2:00pm in Cleveland, Tennessee.

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