Nov. 20, 2011
Box Score
(San Diego, CA) - The USD Toreros (2-1) suffered their first defeat of the season with tonight's 73-60 loss to the visiting Montana Grizzlies (3-1) of the Big Sky Conference. Junior forward Chris Manresa scored a career-high 19 points and posted his third straight double-double of the season with 11 rebounds, but it wasn't enough against a veteran team that returned six players with 15 or more starts from last year's 21-11 club.
"Montana has a group that has a lot of experience, and one of their best traits is their toughness," said head coach Bill Grier. "That really showed, especially in the last 12 minutes of the game. I think their physical play got some of our younger players rattled. And that's going to happen when you play so many young guys from time to time. Our freshmen actually played like freshman tonight, where in our first two games they actually played like sophomores and juniors. I was hoping to get through one more game before hitting the road, but Montana is a very good team."
USD found themselves down 34-27 at the break, but rallied to take a 47-44 lead with 11:51 to go in the game. It was at this point that USD's youth was exposed by the more veteran and physical Grizzlies as the visitor's went on a 26-6 run over the next 7 ½ minutes to put the game away. Montana was able to get a lot of close in baskets against the Toreros as they shot 60% from the field for the game (30-50). USD, on the other hand, shot a season low 37.1% (23-62) and struggled from the free throw line (9-17).
Montana was paced by forward Kareem Jamar who led four Grizzlies in double digit scoring with 14 points and 5 assists. For USD, Dennis Kramer chipped in a career-high 15 points to go with 5 rebounds, but no other Torero reached double digits. Freshman guard Johnny Dee, who totaled 22 and 23 point outings in his first two collegiate games, finished with 9 points on 3-of-12 shooting.
The Toreros will look to get back to their winning ways this coming week when they play three games at the Hoops for Hope Classic in New Orleans with games against New Orleans (Nov. 25; 2:30 PST), Alcorn State (Nov. 26; 2:30 PST) and Tulane (Nov. 27; 4:00 PST). All three games can be heard live on XTRA Sports 1360am with Andy Masur calling the play-by-play.
