Nov. 30, 2005

Box Score

SAN DIEGO - Before a sellout crowd at the Jenny Craig Pavilion, the USD Toreros (3-2) earned bragging rights in San Diego for the next year with a solid 90-80 victory over the visiting SDSU Aztecs (3-2). USD's big three of Ross DeRogatis (20 points), Corey Belser (18 points, 12 rebounds) and Nick Lewis (16 points) paved the way, but it was a total team effort against a very good Aztecs club. USD's two 5th-year seniors improved on a couple of personal highlights - Lewis became USD's 18th player to crack 1,000 career points (now at 1,010) and Belser notched his third straight double-double. USD hits the road for a game at Furman this Saturday (10 am PST).

"I thought our guys came out real focused and we got a solid team effort for 40 minutes," said head coach Brad Holland. "Our Big Three (Corey, Nick and Ross) came up with big games, but we received great efforts from our entire team. We made some adjustments at halftime that helped us both offensively and defensively, with our inside game and our inside-outside game that freed up some shots. The is a great win for our program against a very athletic and solid Aztecs team."

USD started strong out of the gates in their home opener, building a 15-6 lead at the 14:24 mark on a three-pointer by freshman Ray Murdock. USD would hold an 8 point lead of 27-19 at just under the 8 minute mark, but the visitors stormed back to jump ahead for the first time at 29-27 on a three-pointer by Brandon Heath at the 4:26 mark. The Aztecs extended it to 7 points, but USD was able to close the deficit to 3 at halftime (38-35) on a three-point play by Nick Lewis with four ticks left.

USD played a solid second half, turning the ball over just 5 times after 10 miscues in the first half. USD regained the lead at 42-41 early in the 2nd half on a trey by DeRogatis, and would never trail again. State closed to within 56-55 with 9:50 to go on a Heath jumper, but the Toreros answered by outscoring the visitors 34-25 the rest of the way.

Nir Cohen was USD's fourth player in double figures with 12 points. Freshman point guard Brandon Johnson turned in a solid effort with 9 points and 5 assists, and Ray Murdock tallied 9 points. As a team USD shot 52.5% from the floor, and canned 60% of their field goals in the 2nd half. The Toreros canned 11-21 treys with DeRogatis nailing 6-of-8 to lead the way. Corey Belser chipped in with 3-of-4 three-pointers and matched his personal-best of 18 points.

San Diego State was paced by Heath (24 points), Marcus Slaughter (23 points, 9 rebounds) and Mohamed Camara (10 points, 10 rebounds).