Dec. 31, 2004
Box Score
(SAN DIEGO, CA) - Sophomore guard Avi Fogel led the USD men's basketball to to its 5th straight victory, and 6th in its last 7 games, with a career-high 22 points as USD downed the Creighton Bluejays 82-70 at the JCP Friday afternoon. With the win the Toreros close out their nonconference schedule at 8-5 and will now open up WCC play next week at Pepperdine (Jan. 7th) and LMU (Jan. 9th). Brice Vounang (14 points/8 rebounds) led four other Toreros in double digits as the 5-game winning streak is the program's longest since a 6-game streak in 2000-01. Creighton falls to 9-4 on the season.
The Toreros played superb defense and rebounded well, but more importantly handled Creighton's fullcourt press. Fogel played a key role in that department using his quickness to break through on numerous occasions.
"We had two keys for today's game, continue our solid defense and rebounding, and secondly, handle their fullcourt press and get into our offense," said 11th-year head coach Brad Holland. "We trained hard to go 40 minutes of full court pressure, and it paid off for us. Avi is a press breaker, he played a great floor game.
In the first half both teams struggled in getting out of the gates offensively as the score was 13-12 Creighton at the 9:14 mark. It was still close with just under 5 minutes to go (22-21 USD), but the Toreros closed out the 1st half on a 14-5 run with five different players scoring. USD's defense held Creighton to 36% shooting in the first half (9-25) while converting 51.9% of their own (14-27).
In the 2nd half USD immediately jumped out to a 16 point lead (44-28) at the 17:32 mark on a jumper by Brice Vounang, and then was able to answer all of the Jays' runs the rest of the way. CU cut it to 9 at 55-46 with 10:56 to go on a Nate Funk jumper, but Ross DeRogatis immediately answered with a trey. They cut it to 9 one more time, but Vounang converted a jumper. From there USD would hold a double-digit lead the rest of the way.
Besides Fogel and Vounang, USD also got double-digit scoring from Nick Lewis (12 points), Ross DeRogatis (11) and Brandon Gay (10). USD outrebounded the Jays 37-34 and turned the ball over just 13 times despite receiving heavy full court pressure most of the contest. Creighton (9-4) was paced by Nate Funk with 17 points.
Added coach Holland, "We couldn't feel better about ourselves heading into WCC play. We've won five in a row and six of seven. Our guys are playing with a lot of confidence and believe they are going to win every game they play."
