South Florida beat Rice on Wednesday night to win the American Athletic Conference championship and will return to the NCAA tournament after a one-year absence.

Behind a balanced, mostly efficient scoring attack and a stifling perimeter defense, the No. 3-seeded Bulls (23-10) led wire to wire Wednesday night in a 69-62 triumph against Rice in the American Athletic Conference Tournament final in Fort Worth, Texas. USF is headed to the NCAA tourney for the 10th time and fourth in the past five seasons.

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