Jan. 10, 2009
Box Score
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Another solid second half performance propelled the University of San Diego women's basketball team to a 67-54 win over Santa Clara University in a West Coast Conference game at USD's Jenny Craig Pavilion.
With the win, the Toreros improve to 11-5 overall, move to 2-0 in the WCC and have now won five consecutive games. With the loss, the Broncos fall to 2-15 overall and 0-2 in the WCC.
Senior forward Kiva Herman paced USD's offense with a game-high 20 points on 8-for-16 shooting from the floor. Freshman point guard Dominique Conners had another solid outing as she scored 16 points, pulled down a career-high seven rebounds and dished out five assists. Senior center Amber Sprague was the final USD player in double figures as she had 10 points. Emily Hatch recorded a career-high 15 rebounds to go along with seven points. As a team, USD shot 35 percent from the field and out rebounded the Broncos 43-40.
With USD trailing 11 going into the break, they had to once again look to have a solid second half, and that is exactly what they got. USD outscored the Broncos 32-11 over the first 14 minutes of action. The two teams traded basket-for-basket over the first several minutes of action in the second frame, then with the score at 38-25 in favor of the Broncos, a Kelly Winther lay-up sparked a 5-0 run to pull USD back to within seven at 38-31 with 15:21 to go.
The Toreros then slowly chipped away at the lead and eventually tied things up at 41 on a Sprague jumper with 11:16 to go. On USD's next possession, Sprague scored her 1500th career point to give USD the lead for good, and sparked a 13-3 run which gave the Toreros complete control of the momentum. San Diego never looked back as they cruised their way to their fifth straight win.
In the first half, the two teams were engaged in a sea saw battle right out of the gates, trading basket-for-basket and each team taking their turn with the lead. Then with the scored knotted at 20, a Rhianna Faithhill 3-pointer sparked a 13-2 run to close out the frame, including holding USD to one basket over the final five minutes of play to take an 11-point lead going into the break.
The Toreros will return to action on Thursday as they head to Malibu for a 7 p.m. WCC game against Pepperdine University.
