South Florida 52 Marquette 63

Dominique Jones might want to get out of the business of making predictions.

The South Florida guard, who earlier in the week created a stir by reportedly guaranteeing on his Facebook page that his Bulls would win their next four games, wound up eating his words Saturday night at the Bradley Center.

Led by 18 points and 14 rebounds from Lazar Hayward, the Marquette Golden Eagles beat South Florida, 63-52, shutting up the Bulls' gunner, but much more important, further bolstering their NCAA tournament résumé with their fifth consecutive victory.

Jimmy Butler added 15 points, Maurice Acker had 14 points and six assists, and David Cubillan scored 11 for the Golden Eagles (16-8 overall, 7-5 Big East), who won their 50th game in league play since joining the Big East for the 2005-'06 season.

Jones, who entered leading the Big East in scoring at 25.5 points per game in league play, led the Bulls with 16 points but did so on just 6-for-21 shooting. Darius Johnson-Odom, MU's third-leading scorer coming in, managed just three points on the night but nonetheless earned the MVP nod from coach Buzz Williams for the defensive effort he did on the 6-foot-4 junior in 31 minutes.

The crowd of 18,064 and even some of the MU players who had downplayed Jones' comments also got their shots in on him over the course of this grinder, clearly leading to some frustration for both him and South Florida coach Stan Heath.

“He's a kid, and he's never been in this situation,” said Heath, referring to the Bulls' emergence from the Big East basement this year. “Dominique's one of those guys that, he's like a furnace, and he can heat up your house or he can burn it down. And so it's important that I allow him to heat it up, but I've got to be careful not to let him burn it down.”

Hayward more than did his part in keeping Jones' prediction from coming to fruition by posting his seventh double-double while also emphatically swatting a pair of Jones' shots in the second half.

“I said a little something to him, but there wasn't too much going on,” said Hayward, who passed Wesley Matthews and Tony Smith to move into seventh place on MU's all-time scoring list with 1,689 points. “I'm sure he had that in the back of his mind, and he was trying to help his team.”

To place all the blame on Jones wouldn't be fair, as most of his Bulls teammates were just as cold. South Florida (15-9, 5-7) shot just 35.5% for the game and 29.7% in the second half in a game both teams needed desperately to keep their post-season hopes alive.

Nursing a 31-27 halftime lead despite their own 38.5% shooting in the opening 20 minutes, the Golden Eagles hit five of their first six shots out of the locker room to take a 42-31 lead - their biggest to that point.

They opened it to 46-33 thanks to some stifling defense, forcing the Bulls into three turnovers in four possessions and cashing them in for a pair of Acker layups. South Florida came in averaging just 7.4 turnovers in its previous five games but with that trio of miscues had already committed 11, leading to 12 MU points.

A Cubillan three-pointer from the right corner looked to have given MU some breathing room at 49-35 with 10 minutes 52 seconds left. But a 12-4 run, sparked by eight straight points in the paint by 6-foot-11 center Jarrid Famous, pulled South Florida to within 53-47 at the 6:26 mark.

MU answered with six straight points, however, to once again go up by double digits. It went the final 4:09 without a field goal, but South Florida could muster only two itself and never was able to pose a serious threat of a comeback.

“I'm glad it's over,” Williams said. “South Florida is extremely talented, and we were overmatched at every single position - including the coaches on the bench.

“I thought our guys played the scouting report as well as they have all year long. This was our best field-goal percentage defense game in the Big East, and they have very talented players that can score in a myriad of ways.”

MU now has four days to prepare for another showdown, this time against No. 25 Pittsburgh at the Bradley Center. The Panthers, coming off a triple-overtime victory over West Virginia on Friday, are just the sort of high-profile team the Golden Eagles need to knock off to continue to build their case for inclusion in the NCAA tournament.

“It's corny, but every day we're just working hard,” Hayward said. “Every day in practice, in film, we're just putting it all in combination and when the game comes, we're ready.”