Facing its stiffest challenge to date, the No. 20 MSU women's basketball team responded with its best effort of the season, knocking off a feisty South Florida team, 79-71, Sunday afternoon at Breslin Center.

Each MSU starter recorded at least three assists, with senior guard Rene Haynes pacing the Spartans with six.

"It was a great team win against an excellent team," MSU head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "I loved the fact that we had 24 assists, shared the basketball and found people."

MSU used a 12-4 run after halftime to distance itself from the Bulls, who were down five going into the break.

"They went on that run that really opened it up a little," South Florida head coach Jose Fernandez said. "We made runs at them, but the big thing is that they hit shots at crucial times."

The Spartans took an early lead, but the Bulls didn't allow them to pull away. South Florida's stars, guard Shantia Grace and forward Jessica Dickson, scored 20 of the Bulls' points, as South Florida was able to grab a 25-22 lead with less than five minutes to play in the first half.

But MSU climbed right back into it on the back of senior guard Victoria Lucas-Perry, who scored eight of MSU's next 14 points to help the Spartans take a 38-33 halftime lead.

The second half, like many this season, turned into the Allyssa DeHaan show, as the freshman center took over the game on both ends of the floor. When her teammates, who struggled to feed her accurately in the post all day, did find her, she quickly turned and scored over South Florida's overmatched defenders.

On the defensive end, she swallowed up six blocks in the half to bump her total to eight, tying the school single-game record she set Nov. 19 against Texas-Arlington.

"I'm hoping to break that record," DeHaan said. "That comes with aggressiveness and working as a team together to shut them down so I can get the blocks."

DeHaan finished with 20 points, nine rebounds and eight blocks.

Working side-by-side with DeHaan in the post, sophomore forward Aisha Jefferson came out aggressively from the start and showed some tremendous post moves in scoring 16 points on 8-of-13 shooting.

"She plays with so much heart and passion," senior forward Katrina Grantham said of Jefferson. "It's just the tip of the iceberg with Aisha right now. She has so much more potential. She can be even better."

Despite DeHaan and Jefferson's efforts, South Florida remained resilient, cutting MSU's lead, which once stood at 13 points, down to four with just less than two minutes to play in the game.

After an MSU miss and a South Florida timeout, the Bulls looked to make it a one-possession game, but Jefferson stole the ball from Grace at the top of the key and fed Haynes for a fast break layup, effectively ending any hopes of a comeback.

"I loved the fact that the team came together and played so hard together and made the big plays down the stretch that they did," McCallie said. "Character is revealed a lot down the stretch, and I just thought that we had tremendous team character and got some stops that we needed, got to some balls we needed to get to and also attacked the basket and looked to each other like we needed to down the stretch."

For South Florida, which was on the cusp of The Associated Press Top 25 coming into the game, it was a disappointing result.

"These are the type of games you have to win if you want to get that national exposure and get into the Top 25," Fernandez said.