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Blue leads No. 25 Marquette past South Florida

Jan 29, 2013 - 7:35 AM Milwaukee, WI (Sports Network) - Behind a career-high 30 points from Vander Blue, the 25th-ranked Marquette Golden Eagles took down the South Florida Bulls, 63-50, in a Big East bout at the Bradley Center.

Blue shot 13-of-20 from the field for Marquette (15-4, 6-1 Big East), which extended its home winning streak to 21 games and is now tied atop the Big East standings with Syracuse. Trent Lockett added 10 points and eight rebounds for the Golden Eagles, while Junior Cadougan handed out six assists.

"I know what I can do," Blue said of his breakout game. "I've been playing basketball for a long time. I've played against the best competition pretty much my whole life. I just knew my time was coming."

JaVontae Hawkins scored 14 points to lead USF (10-10, 1-7), which has lost three straight a seven of eight. Victor Rudd chipped in 13 points and four steals, while Zach LeDay tallied 10 points and seven rebounds.

"We were missing a lot of shots and not shooting well," South Florida coach Stan Heath said. "The counter of that was they got too many transition baskets and out hustled us down the floor. And Blue really took advantage of that."

Marquette led the game 10-3 less than four minutes in, but USF responded with a 17-7 run to take a 20-17 lead on a LeDay 3-pointer at the 7:25 mark. The Golden Eagles closed out the half on a high note however, and they went into intermission with a 28-24 advantage.

Blue took control after the break with 21 of his 30 points, as the Golden Eagles led by double-digits for most of the second half.

Game Notes

Marquette shot 55.1 percent from the field but just 2-of-15 from 3-point range ... USF made only 15-of-55 attempts from the field (.273) ... The Golden Eagles dominated the Bulls in the paint, 38-14 ... Marquette has won 18 of the 21 all-time meetings between the two programs.