Feb. 25, 2010
Box Score
San Diego, Calif.- The University of San Diego men's basketball team was unable to stop Loyola Marymount's Drew Viney and his career-high 35 points on Thursday evening, dropping a 72-69 contest to the Lions at the Jenny Craig Pavilion.
The Toreros (9-20, 2-11) were dealt their sixth straight loss and 11th defeat in their last 12 games during Thursday's WCC contest, losing control of the game's advantage with 2:39 left in the game after holding the lead for a majority of the second half. USD led by as much as six in the game, including a 63-58 lead with 5:43 left before LMU (16-13, 7-6) used its 54.2% second-half field-goal shooting percentage to put themselves ahead of San Diego.
Senior forward Chris Lewis led all USD players with 13 points on perfect 4-for-4 shooting, including 3-of-3 from beyond the arc. Senior forward Roberto Mafra and freshman guard Patrick McCollum each added 12 points, with Mafra grabbing five boards and McCollum registering a team-high eight rebounds. Mafra also recorded six blocks in the game, tying a school-record.
USD trailed by as much as eight points in the opening ten minutes of the game before Lewis led the Toreros through an 8-0 run to tie the game at 13 with 12:54 left. Lewis sandwiched two free throws with two three-pointers over a minute during the run to even the score.
The Toreros closed out the first half strong, hitting seven of their 10 shots over seven minutes to take a 34-31 lead. After Patrick McCollum provided the Toreros with their first lead of the game with a dodging lay-up at the 7:14 mark to set the score at 22-21, USD went on to pick up its largest lead of the opening half when Lewis hit his third three of the opening 20 minutes to put the Toreros ahead 31-27.
The four-point advantage was quickly erased when Viney scored his 16th and 17th points of the first half with 1:35 remaining to cut the score to 31-29, but Devin Ginty added a three-pointer to give San Diego the 34-31 lead with 53 seconds remaining in the first.
The Toreros opened the second half scoring on three consecutive possessions and going on a 6-0 burst, jumping out to a 40-34 lead two minutes into the half.
The Lions cut the Toreros lead to 48-46 with 12:53 remaining before Mafra came alive, scoring nine points during a four-minute span and helping the Toreros maintain control over the Lions. The 6-10 forward scored back-to-back baskets on consecutive USD possessions between the 10:25 and 9:36 marks, including a drive down an inviting wide-open lane where he finished with a thunderous one-handed dunk to provide the Toreros with a 58-53 lead with nine and a half minutes to go.
USD will close out its regular season schedule on Saturday, February 27th, where they will take on Pepperdine University at 6 p.m. at the Jenny Craig Pavilion. The two teams met on January 30th in Malibu, where the Toreros defeated the Waves 66-44.
