Here's Mike Camunas' story from USF's win against Winston-Salem State ...

TAMPA — Aaron Holmes could get used to this.

In USF's 87-48 win against Winston-Salem State on Saturday night in the Sun Dome, the St. Petersburg Catholic grad came off the bench to score a career-high 20 points. And after sitting out more than a year since transferring from Florida State, Holmes was all smiles after just his third collegiate game.

"Yeah, I could get used to playing and scoring this much," said Holmes, who scored 13 points in his second game last week against St. Francis. "I don't really focus on the minutes I have, because it's not a individual thing. Coach (Stan Heath) has confidence that I can shoot the ball and that's what I do to try to help my team win."

Holmes went 5-of-8 from 3-point range and 7-of-12 overall, but Heath added a little extra motivation on the floor.

"Coach got made at me for passing (a 3-point shot) up," Holmes said. "I was open at the top of the key and passed it to the wing. He looked at me and said, 'If you pass one up again, you're coming out.' That's all I needed to hear."

Heath was impressed with his redshirt freshman.

"(His performance) was very amazing," Heath said. "He can get on a roll and it's nice to see that you have a guy who can get 20 points in 19 minutes. I don't care who you're playing, that's pretty impressive."

The Bulls (9-4) have won nine of their last 10 games headed into Big East play Wednesday and never trailed Saturday. Center Kentrell Gransberry scored a game-high 21 points for the fourth time this season. The senior also pulled down 14 rebounds for the game's lone double-double. USF held the Rams (4-7) to 31 percent field goal shooting in the first, but weren't much better, shooting 35 percent.

"We came out a little tentative about hitting open shots," Heath said. "But the rebounding was very strong. In the second half I thought it all came together and once that happened, the game really opened up."

Amu Saaka opened up again, as well. In his just his second start of the season, the 6-foot-6 sophomore scored a career-high 17 points on 5-of-7 shooting with two 3-pointers.

The Bulls vastly improved in the second, shooting 61 percent in the field and scoring 25 points off turnovers. The 39-point victory was their largest since beating LIU-Brooklyn 92-52 in 2002.

But Holmes was the local hero, having a stellar game in front of about 30 friends and family that "came over the (Howard Frankland) bridge to watch me play."

"It was a good feeling to get back in here (into games)," Holmes said. "So it was a pretty exciting night for me. But now, this win is behind us because Rutgers is on Wednesday."