Marquette clips S. Fla.

Lazar Hayward scored a career-high 23 points and No. 17 Marquette held off an upset bid by South Florida for an 62-54 victory Tuesday night.

Wesley Matthews added 16 points for the Golden Eagles (15-4, 5-3 Big East), including three late 3-pointers that helped put the game away.

Marquette's win came despite limited contributions from leading scorer Dominic James, who appeared to take a forearm in the gut early on and played only 6 minutes in the first half. James sat out the first 6 minutes of the second half and finished with 3 points.

Trailing by eight points at halftime, South Florida (10-11, 1-7) used a 10-4 run to tie the game at 42 with 5:10 remaining.

But Matthews responded immediately with a 3-pointer, and South Florida's upset bid began to fall apart when leading scorer and rebounder Kentrell Gransberry fouled out with 4:06 remaining.