March 2, 2007
Final Stats
(Portland, OR) - The USD Toreros (17-13) played an outstanding game from start to finish in handing the Pepperdine Waves (8-23) a 95-82 loss in the first round of the 2007 West Coast Conference Championships. Senior Ross DeRogatis scored a game-high 22 points and was followed by Gyno Pomare (20 points) and Nir Cohen (19 points) as the Toreros shot 57.6 percent from the floor (2nd best shooting mark this season). USD also canned 11-of-21 three-pointers with DeRogatis converting on 5-of-8. The No. 5 seed Toreros will now take on No. 4 seed San Francisco Saturday in the 6:00 p.m. quarterfinal contest.
The win was USD's third this season against the Waves, and second straight opening win over them in WCC Tourney play. In the first half USD built a 16 point lead (44-28) with 3:42 left before Pepperdine battled back to get within 7 at intermission (48-41). USD's inside game of Pomare and Cohen, each with 12 points, paced the attack in the first 20 minutes.
In the second half USD extended its lead to 12 points (62-50) with 14:09 to go on a DeRogatis trey, but Pepperdine fought back again to within 5 points (64-59) on a Chase Griffen three-pointer with 12:13 left. USD would never be threatened the rest of the way as the Toreros had an answer for each Pepperdine push.
Brandon Johnson dished out a career-high 11 assists, and Ray Murdock scored 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Pepperdine was paced by Marvin Lea with 17 points.
