Ozarks now advances to play Indiana Wesleyan in the Elite Eight round Saturday evening at 6:00 p.m.

The Cougars, who were playing Ozarks on its home floor in front of a capacity crowd at Keeter Gymnasium, did not score for the game's first five and a half minutes and could never recover from the slow start.

In his final game, USF senior forward Gerad Van Leur (Emery, S.D.) recorded his sixth double double of the season with a 10 point, 11-rebound effort. Freshman forward Skyler Bloch (Lesterville, S.D.) also scored 10 points to tie for the team lead.

Van Leur exited the game with 1:08 left in the second half to a heartfelt ovation from the Cougar faithful who made the trip. With his 129 games played, Van Leur finishes his career second on USF's career games played list.

Friday's contest also marked the final games for three other seniors: transfer guard TJ Nettles, four-year guard Adam Herther and second-year forward Tyler McAthie.

Ozarks had four players score in double figures, led by sophomore Jared Howerton with 16 points on 7 of 16 shooting.

As a team the Bobcats shot 50 percent for the game and outscored the Cougars 46-32 in the paint.

The 56-point output is the lowest for the Cougars this season. USF shot 21 percent in the first half and 35 percent for the game.

It was an uphill challenge for the Cougars to even make it to this juncture of their season. USF went on the road as the ninth seed in the conference tournament and won four games in eight days to earn the GPAC's second automatic bid.

That much was not lost on Coach Johnson following the game.  "It was a group effort to get us to this point, but it started with our seniors," Johnson said afterward.  "There are a lot of tears in that locker room and that's a good thing.  That means this meant something to all those guys. It means our program is headed in the right direction."

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