Nov. 21, 2010
Box Score
(San Diego, CA) - The visiting Cal State Fullerton Titans (1-3) escaped with a 62-59 victory over the Toreros at the Jenny Craig Pavilion this afternoon. Torero guard Matt Dorr's 3-point attempt at the buzzer rimmed out dropping USD's record to 1-3 on the year. Senior guard Devin Ginty scored a season-high 17 points for USD, but the Toreros hurt themselves as they made just 13 of 22 free throws for the game (59.1%). Through their first three games the Toreros had converted a solid 81%.
Down 60-59 and inside of 10 seconds to go, the Toreros also missed out on three close-in shots by Devin Ginty, Ken Rancifer and Dorr. Following Dorr's miss with three seconds to go, Titan guard Devon Peltier (24 points) grabbed the loose ball under the basket and was fouled by Ginty. He made both free throws at the other end for the three point lead. Following a timeout, USD's Chris Manresa fired a long pass in front of the Torero bench that was intercepted by Fullerton's Eric Williams, but he landed out of bounds, giving USD one last crack with just under 1 second to go. Without any timeouts, USD's inbounds pass to Dorr gave him a wide open three-point shot that looked good all the way but rimmed out.
USD found itself down 28-21 at halftime after converting just 29.6% from the field in the first 20 minutes of action. In the second half, Fullerton extended their lead to 11 points twice; the last one coming at 48-37 with 10:43 to go. From there the Toreros rallied and with 4:09 to go took a 56-55 lead on a Matt Dorr three-pointer. A Rancifer bucket with 3:18 left gave USD a 3-point cushion, but Fullerton closed out the game on a 7-1 run. USD was just 1 for 4 from the free throw line in the final 1:37.
USD also received double digit scoring from Dorr (12 points) and Rancifer (10 points). For the game Fullerton outrebounded the Toreros 39-34, and converted 18-of-23 free throws (78.3%). These two teams will face each other again on December 4th at Fullerton. The Toreros do not play again until next Sunday when they have an afternoon contest at the University of New Mexico (12 noon PT).
