TAMPA - Well, it may not have been pretty, but a win is a win and the University of South Florida women's basketball team battled to its seventh victory of the season with a hard fought 63-54 triumph over Wake Forest tonight at the Sun Dome.

The win, USF's second straight and its fifth in its last seven games, improves the Bulls to 7-4 on the season while the Demon Deacons drop to 5-4.

In a game that was marred by a combined 55 fouls and 78 free throws, the Bulls overcame a cold shooting first half that saw them hit just 27.6 percent (8-29) from the field while Wake Forest wasn't much better hitting 28.6 percent (8-28) from the floor.

USF led by as many as six points on three separate occasions early on in the contest, with the latter being a 12-6 margin on a jumper by Kaneisha Saunders with 14:40 left in the half. The Demon Deacons, however would come back and cut the lead to two points, 12-10, on a layup by Secily Ray with 13:36 left before the break.

After Porche Grant hit the front end of a two shot free throw with 12:14 left to make the score 13-10, neither team would score until Grant toed the line again with 7:58 left and hit two free throws giving the Bulls a 15-10 lead. Then, Wake's Lindsy Wright would hit the first field goal for either team in 7:36 on a driving layup with seven minutes left on the clock cutting USF's lead to three 15-12. 

Both teams would go back-and-forth for the remainder of the half, with neither team leading by more than three points. They eventually entered the locker room at the intermission tied at 25-all.

After the same game of cat-and-mouse that was seen in the first half continued into the second stanza, the Bulls finally used a 15-6 run, capped by a Leondra Doomes-Stephens jumper with 3:39 left in the game giving USF its biggest lead of the contest, a 56-48 advantage.

Wake Forest would make one last push to get back into the game but could never get closer than four points the rest of the way.

Grant and Daleisha Carn would lead the way for the Bulls with 14 points apiece. Grant's 14 points tied her career-high while her 14 boards fell one shy of tying her career-high for rebounds. In addition, it was Grant's second double-double of the year and sixth of her career. 

Andrell Smith added 10 points in the win for the Bulls.

For Wake Forest, Brittany Waters scored a game-high 16 points and Lakevia Boykin chipped in with 10 points.

The Bulls will now hit the road for six of their next seven games beginning on Saturday, Dec. 18 at 6 p.m. ET when they butt heads with UNLV in the first round of the Basketball Travelers Classic in Las Vegas. USF will then face SMU on Dec. 19 (8 p.m. ET) and then close out the event against Texas on Dec. 20 (8 p.m. ET).