Nov. 26, 2011
Final Stats
(New Orleans, LA) - The USD Toreros (4-1) escaped with a 66-65 win over Alcorn State (1-4) in the second game of the Hoops for Hope Classic at Fogelman Arena on the campus of Tulane University. Senior guard Darian Norris, with the shot clock winding down, drove the lane and scored on a lay-up in traffic for the game-winning shot. Alcorn State's JaMichael Hawkins layup attempt with 12 seconds left was blocked by Chris Manresa. Hawkins grabbed the offensive rebound and teammate Twann Oakley's three-point attempt at the buzzer was off the mark. USD plays for the championship Sunday against host Tulane at 4:00 p.m. (PST) at the New Orleans Arena.
"On that final play the clock was winding down and you want your point guard to be able to make that play, especially your senior," said head coach Bill Grier. "The bottom line is we won. We didn't play particularly well in the second half. I thought in the first half we defended very well, and in the second half it was just the opposite - I thought we defended very poorly. They were the much more aggressive team. We were lucky to hold on, but now we move on and we now play what I feel is the best team (Tulane) we've played on our schedule so far."
Norris had his best game of the season as he finished with 15 points to go with 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Freshman guard Johnny Dee sparked the Toreros with a game-high 18 points as he had 12 by intermission with USD leading 38-29. Junior forward Chris Manresa just missed out on his fifth straight double-double as he finished with totals of 10 points and 9 rebounds.
"When I put up that final shot I thought it was going in," said a happy Darian Norris. "I practice shots like that all the time. That's something Coach Grier told me to work a lot on this past summer, and it paid off tonight."
In the second half Alcorn State came out with a 10-2 run in the first four minutes to pull to within 42-39. A Simi Fajemisin basket slowed down their rally briefly, but Alcorn continued their solid play and eventually took their first lead of the 2nd half at 48-47 on a Chris Brand (16 points) jumper. They would extend their lead to as many as 5 points twice, the last coming at 54-49 with 8:35 to go. Norris hit USD's next two buckets with a lay-up and three-pointer, and another trey by Dennis Kramer at 6:35 gave USD a 57-56 lead.
From there the game went back-and-forth down the stretch with Alcorn State taking their final lead at 64-63 with 1:11 to go on a layup by Hawkins. That set-up the last second heroics by Norris for the Toreros who improve to 4-1 out of the gates for the first time since the 2002-03 campaign
