Toarlyn Fitzpatrick scored a career-high 25 points and grabbed eight rebounds, leading South Florida to an 83-59 victory over Florida A&M on Sunday.
Shaun Noriega added 12 points, Victor Rudd Jr. 11 and Anthony Collins 10 for South Florida (6-4). Hugh Robertson had a career-high 21 rebounds for the Bulls.
''It's good to see the work put in during the offseason is starting to pay off,'' said Fitzpatrick, whose previous best was a 17-point effort against Florida Atlantic on Nov. 26. ''Getting a lot of repetitions is making those shots a lot easier than they were last year.''
Reggie Lewis scored 17 points and Avery Moore had 14 to pace Florida A&M (2-8). Jeremy Dean added 13 rebounds and six points for the Rattlers.
Nathaniel Drayton hit a jumper to give Florida A&M a 29-28 edge with 5:26 to go in the first half.
South Florida scored the next 11 points en route to a 39-29 advantage at the break. The Bulls extended the run to 17-0 before Yannick Crowder ended a scoreless drought of nearly eight minutes for the Rattlers.
The USF lead peaked at 30 points with 2:37 remaining.
''I thought defensively we were a little lackadaisical to start - we weren't guarding people,'' USF coach Stan Heath said. ''I thought once we finally got up in to people and made them do something different, the game changed in our favor, and we were able to get some offense from our defense.''
