Toreros find their lost touch
Brad Holland admitted his had some major concerns about the way his University of San Diego team was playing heading into this year’s West Coast Conference men’s basketball tournament.
And with good reason.
The fifth-seeded Toreros came in having lost their last four games. But in Friday night’s tournament opener against eighth-seeded Pepperdine, they rediscovered the aggression that had made them so dangerous early in the season and rode it to an 85-72 win over the Waves in the McCarthey Athletic Center.
Freshman guard Brandon Johnson scored a career-high 24 points and four of his teammates finished in double figures as USD (17-11) earned a shot at fourth-seeded San Francisco (11-16) in tonight’s quarterfinals.
Pepperdine (7-20) bowed out the tournament despite getting 21 points from senior wing Tashaan Forehan-Kelly and 18 more from freshman forward Chris Oakes.
“To have our team come out with great energy and determination was great to see,” Holland said. “We asked our guys to error on the side of being aggressive, and we had 16 foul calls in the first half, so that’s pretty aggressive.
“We wanted to turn it up defensively and rebound well, and that definitely helped out offense tonight.”
The Toreros shot 52.2 percent (35 of 67) from the field, won the rebounding battle 48-35 and held Pepperdine to 25 percent shooting it he first half. The Waves made only 6 of 24 basket tries in the opening period and struggled through a field-goal drought that lasted more than 11 minutes and included 12 consecutive missed shots and six turnovers.
The drought, according to coach Paul Westphal, was hardly shocking.
“We’ve had stretches like that all year,” he explained. “We’ve been poor at executing, we’ve had virtually no inside game and we shot a horrible percentage.
“It was a typical dry spell.”
San Diego outscored Pepperdine 23-9 during that span and opened up a 27-14 lead it never relinquished.
San Diego 85, Pepperdine 72
Pepperdine (7-20)–Jarbo 2-4 2-3 6, Galick 0-1 0-0 0, Oakes 9-12 0-2 18, Forehan-Kelly 3-13 13-18 21, Gerrity 0-3 1-2 1, Barlow 0-4 4-6 4, Costain 3-7 0-0 8, Grubb 2-5 0-0 5, Griffin 1-4 0-0 2, Horning 1-1 0-0 2, Hicks 2-3 1-2 5, Henry 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 23-57 21-33 72.
San Diego (17-11)–Belser 4-9 2-2 11, Cohen 4-8 1-1 10, Lewis 5-12 3-4 13, DeRogatis 5-10 0-0 13, Murdock 2-3 0-0 4, Johnson 10-14 2-5 24, Brown 0-4 0-0 0, Pomare 3-3 0-0 6, Price 0-0 0-0 0, White 1-2 0-1 2, Smith 1-2 0-0 2, Totals 35-67 8-13 85.
Halftime––San Diego 37, Pepperdine 27. 3-point goals––Pepperdine 5-14 (Forehan-Kelly 2-5, Costain 2-5, Grubb 1-3, Barlow 0-1), San Diego 7-25 (DeRogatis 3-7, Johnson 2-3, Belser 1-4, Cohen 1-5, Lewis 0-1, Murdock 0-1, Smith 0-1). Total fouls––Pepperdine 18, San Diego 25. Rebounds––Pepperdine 35 (Forehan-Kelly, Oakes 5), San Diego 48 (Belser 9). Assists––Pepperdine 16 (Forehan-Kelly 4), San Diego 17 (DeRogatis, Johnson 4). Fouled out––Smith, Murdock. Technical fouls––None. A––NA.