USF Senior Writer

ROSEMONT - USF head coach Stan Heath had a talk with Augustus Gilchrist after the senior had been pressing in recent games.

Heath's message - just be aggressive and good things will happen.

Gilchrist answered the call Sunday by pouring in 22 points to help the rising Bulls pull into a tie for third place in the Big East with a 75-59 victory at DePaul.

USF (12-8, 5-2) won its third straight and its fifth in the last six league games after Gilchrist went 7-for-8 from the field and added five rebounds in his best performance of the season.

"I'm glad he took it to heart and it was good to see him get great results out there," said Heath, who has guided the Bulls to their best-ever start in Big East play. "Our guys kept going to him because he was in that rhythm. When Gus gets in that rhythm he's hard to stop."

Jawanza Poland was the other Bull in double figures with 19 points and 12 came in the first half off the bench to help USF grab a 37-29 lead at the break.

"He has a knack for scoring," Heath said.

DePaul (11-9, 1-6) tied a season low with 59 points while Brandon Young, who averaged 16.8 points coming into Sunday, went 0-for-13 from the field and had just six points. Heath credited Hugh Robertson's shutdown defense for making it happen.

"That's phenomenal and I think Hugh sometimes doesn't get enough credit. He was awesome on the boards as well and threw in a few points," said Heath of Robertson, who had nine points and nine rebounds.

DePaul got close in the second half, cutting USF's lead to 44-42 with 14:13 to play on a layup by Cleveland Melvin. The Bulls responded with a 10-4 run - four from Gilchrist - to give them some breathing room the rest of the way.

"Road wins are hard. You knew DePaul had its back against the wall a little bit," Heath said. "I knew they'd come out fighting and we wanted to make sure we didn't let our guard down."

USF concludes its two-game road trip 8 p.m. Tuesday at Marquette.