Jan. 23, 2010
Box Score
San Diego, Calif.- An overtime nail-biter did not fall in the University of San Diego women's basketball team's favor as the Toreros dropped a 69-66 contest to conference opponent Saint Mary's at the Jenny Craig Pavilion on Saturday afternoon.
The Toreros (11-8, 3-2) seemed to have sealed their fate when Sam Child hit the go-ahead jumper with seven seconds to go in the second-half, but St. Mary's (13-7, 4-1) forced the game into extra time where they went on to capture the final result. Child also had the final opportunity to tie the game as the time expired in overtime, but the tough shot was off target.
USD's two leading scorers, sophomore guards Dominique Conners and Morgan Woodrow, fueled the Torero offense for the majority of the game. Woodrow contributed 14 points and five rebounds while Conners scored 14 to go along with her seven boards and tied her career-high in steals with seven.
Conners, however, was unable to be a factor in the final minutes of regulation and all of overtime as she fouled out at the 3:34 mark in the second half after attempting to grab the rebound following her missed free-throw attempt.
Without the help from Conners, USD was left searching for an offensive replacement. Morgan Henderson, who scored 13 points, came up big by delivering a three with 1:39 to go in regulation, knotting up the contest at 57. Child put the Toreros ahead 59-57 when she drilled an eight-foot jumper, the 70th USD field goal of the game, with seven seconds left, but the Gaels drove the length of the court to cancel out the brief USD advantage and sent the game into overtime when Jasmine Smith scored with a lay-up.
The Toreros at one point led 40-30 in the second half after they jumped out with a 12-2 run. Henderson sparked the run by sinking a three from the left wing to give the Toreros a 31-28 lead. Conners hit a running jumper to extend the Toreros' advantage to its highest mark of 10 and cap the run with 16:46 left.
A St. Mary's timeout cooled the USD 5-of-6 shooting during the stretch as the Toreros went on to miss nine straight shots while the Gaels opened up an 11-0 run to drain the USD double-digit advantage into a 41-40 deficit.
San Diego answered with a Woodrow lay-up with 9:39 to go and giving USD the lead once again. They managed to stretch it to 47-43 over a minute later when Child drained a three.
For the first half, Woodrow and Conners combined to score all of USD's 13 points in the final eight minutes, helping send the Toreros into halftime tied up at 28 with the visiting Gaels.
USD will continue their three-game homestand when they take on Loyola Marymount at the Jenny Craig Pavilion on Thursday, January 28th. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. PT.
