By TOM ZEBOLD

USF Senior Writer 

DAYTON, Ohio - The Bulls reached their highest milestone ever and wowed the nation in the process Wednesday night.

The USF defense came through as advertised and its offense shut the door on Cal in a 65-54 victory that marked the Bulls' first win in three NCAA tournament tries. The Bulls (21-13) advance to the second round and will face fifth-seeded Temple on Friday night in Nashville, Tenn.

The Bulls, equipped with the best defense in the Big East, limited their Pac-12 foe to 36 percent from the field after holding the Bears to just 13 points in the first half.

"It's probably as bad as I've seen us play," Cal coach Mike Montgomery said. "We dug ourselves a huge hole."

Victor Rudd Jr. led four USF players in double figures with 15 points in the Bulls' dominant return to the tournament since their last trip in 1992.

"When everybody scores like we did today, it makes it easy for us," said Rudd Jr.

It sure looked easy in a first half that almost produced another USF milestone.

The Bulls led, 36-13, at the break and made it into second place in the school's history books for fewest points allowed in a half. The Bulls' top performance was allowing just 11 against Northwestern in 2008.

The Bulls jumped out on an 8-0 run and held the Bears without a field goal for the first 5 minutes, 4 seconds. The closest Cal came to the Bulls after the midpoint of the first half was 22-13 before the Bulls went on a 14-0 run that stunned the Bears, who shot just 20 percent in the opening period.

Freshman point guard Anthony Collins was outstanding from the beginning, posting 10 points at the half while senior Augustus Gilchrist had eight and Rudd Jr. added seven during a huge statement by the Bulls.

USF brought its unforgiving defense for most of the second half while the Bulls ran up their lead to 32 on a putback by Ron Anderson Jr.

Cal (24-10) made a lopsided game look closer than it was by going on a 22-6 run to end the game while USF head coach Stan Heath gave some of his bench players extended time on the court.

Not many college basketball experts knew USF could beat up an opponent on the offensive end and the Bulls proved it can definitely be done by shooting 57 percent from the field. Collins scored 12 points, Gilchrist had 11 and Jawanza Poland added 10 while supplying ESPN with a highlight-reel dunk off a rebound that put USF ahead, 59-31, with 7:09 to play.

"They made shots, they made plays and we didn't," Montgomery said. "The final score was a little bit misleading."

Now USF heads to Music City looking to make even more noise in the tournament.

"It's a building process and we took a big step in the right direction today. But we want to take some more steps as well," Heath said.