USDvsPEPgame18

GAME #18: The USD Toreros (6-11, 1-5 WCC) continue their 4-game road swing with games at Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount. First up is Pepperdine (11-7, 4-3 WCC) on Thursday, January 21st. Game time is slated for 6:00 p.m. from Firestone Fieldhouse.

SERIES RECORD: This is the 102nd meeting between USD and Pepperdine with the Waves owning a 60-41 advantage... Pepperdine knocked USD out of the 2015 WCC Tournament with a 50-47 loss (Mar. 7th)... During the regular-season, each team won on the road (USD 72-50, Feb. 7th in Malibu; Pepperdine 59-47 at the JCP, Jan. 10th).

RADIO/TV/VIDEO STREAM: All USD home and away games will be broadcast live on ESPN 1700AM with Jack Cronin (2nd season); his pre-game show airs 10 minutes prior to tip-off. The contest will also be broadcast by Time Warner SportsNet (Steve Quis, Dan Dickau and Kelli Tennant). The game will also be broadcast regionally on ROOT Northwest, ROOT Rocky Mountain, CSN+ and streamed out-of-market on the The W.tv.

WCC STANDINGS (thru Jan. 19th): Saint Mary's (6-1 WCC, 15-2), Gonzaga (6-1, 14-4), BYU (4-2, 13-6), Pepperdine (4-3, 11-7), Portland (3-4, 9-11), Pacific (3-4, 5-12), San Francisco (3-5, 9-9), Santa Clara (3-5, 7-13), LMU (2-5, 9-9), and San Diego (1-5, 6-11).

WCC COACHES PRESEASON POLL: The Toreros were picked 9th in the 2015-16 WCC Preseason Men's Basketball Coaches Poll... Team (First Place Vote) - 1. Gonzaga (9), 81 points; 2. BYU (2), 73 points; 3. Pepperdine, 62 points; 4. Saint Mary's, 58 points; 5. Portland, 43 points; 6. Santa Clara, 37points; 7. Pacific, 32 points; 7. San Francisco, 32 points; 9. San Diego, 17 points; 10. Loyola Marymount, 15 points.

COACH SMITH (1ST YEAR): Coach Lamont Smith (San Diego, 1998) is in his first head coaching position and comes from New Mexico where he was the Associate Head Coach... Prior to that he spent time at Washington, Arizona State, Santa Clara, Saint Mary's College and Saint Louis University... Smith, 40, returns to USD where he was a member of the men's basketball team from 1994-99... He started all 27 games his senior year in 1998-99 for the 18-9 Toreros... He was named the Toreros' Defensive Player of the Year in 1997 and 1999 and served as the team captain from 1997-99... Smith earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from the University of San Diego in 1998... Lamont and his wife Kimberly have two daughters -- Payton and Olivia.

TOREROS EARN SPLIT IN PACIFIC NORTHWEST: The Toreros earned their first league win with a solid 82-71 road win over the Portland Pilots last Thursday... USD scored a season-high 82 points by shooting a season-best 60.4% from the field (32-53)... Seniors Duda Sanadze (29 points) and Jito Kok (17 points) both notched career highs... USD got out of the gates slowly, falling behind 15-5, however, fueled by Sanadze's offense and a stingy defense, the Toreros responded with an 18-2 run to help take a 35-28 intermission lead... USD's hot shooting continued early in the 2nd half... Back-to-back threes by Sanadze and Neubauer paced a 10-0 run, helping USD take a 47-34 lead with 15:20 remaining... The Toreros never surrendered the lead and the closest the Pilots would get was eight points (77-69)... Sophomore Vasa Pusica added 13 points while dishing out a game-high six assists. On Saturday the Toreros were dealt a 88-52 loss at Gonzaga to close out their Pacific Northwest trip... Senior Duda Sanadze was the lone Torero to reach double-digit scoring... USD struggled from the field in the shooting department making just 31.3% from the field (21-67) and 19.2% from three-point range (5-26)... The Zags received a game-high 25 points from All-America candidate Kyle Wiltjer, with Domantas Sabonis chipping in with a double-double (14 points, 15 rebounds)... The game was tied 19-all midway thru the 1st half before the Zags took charge with a 14-0 run.

TORERO TIDBITS:
* The Toreros continue their current 4-game road swing with games at Pepperdine and LMU... USD earned its first "true" road win with Thursday's 82-71 win at Portland... For the season USD is 1-6 in "true" away games and 3-8 overall in games played away from the JCP... For the 11 road games the Toreros are paced by Duda Sanadaze (14.7 ppg).

* Seniors Duda Sanadze and Jito Kok both set career-highs for points in the win at Portland... Sanadze poured in 29 points (10-for-14 shooting) to top his previous high of 25, and Kok had 17 points (7-for-8 shooting), besting his prior top mark of 15 points.

* Senior center Jito Kok ranks 1st in the WCC (#17 in nation thru games of Jan. 18) in blocked shots at 2.65 per game (45 in 17 contests)... He owns all three USD records for blocked shots - single game: 9 vs. UC Davis, 12-15-15; single season: 75 in 2014-15; career: 238 and counting... He ranks 5th all-time among WCC players, trailing #1 Hondre Brewer of USF, 279; #2 Omar Samhan of SMC, 258; John Bryant of SCU, 246; and #4 Diamon Simpson of SMC, 239... With a minimum of 13 games left in the season, Kok needs 42 more blocks to set a new all-time WCC record. He ranks seventh among active career Division I blocked shots leaders (238).

* Sophomore guard Vasa Pusica (Belgrade, Serbia) has improved his production since the start of WCC play... Thru six league contests he is averaging 10.2 ppg, 3.7 rpg and 3.0 assists... Through 11 non-conference games his averages were 6.2 ppg, 3.0 rpg and 1.7 apg.

* Redshirt junior center Brandon Perry (Fresno, Calif.) decided to leave the basketball program... This season he appeared in 13 games (thru. Jan. 2) and averaged 5.7 ppg & 3.6 rpg... He totaled a season-high 12 points in USD's road loss at Western Michigan... Last season he appeared in 29 games with 6 starts and averaged 6.2 ppg and 3.4 rpg... He scored a career-best 16 points twice (@ LMU, 2-5-15; @UCLA, 12-7-14).

* USD knocked off San Diego State in the annual City Championship game played outdoors at Petco Park on December 6th by the score of 53-48... Senior Duda Sanadze turned in an inspiring peformance with 15 points (5-10 in threes), 6 rebounds and a career-best 5 steals... Freshman guard Olin Carter III helped USD to a 31-13 halftime advantage by making 4-of-5 threes in the first 20 minutes.

* The Toreros closed out the month of December with a 4-2 record... Senior Duda Sanadze averaged a team-best 12.7 ppg during the month with Vasa Pusica chipping in at a 10.8 ppg clip... Brett Bailey (8.5 ppg, 6.2 rpg) and Jito Kok (8.2 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 3.7 bpg) also played key roles.

* Four recent Toreros are currently playing professionally overseas - Gyno Pomare, '09 (Kanazawa Samuraiz; Kanazawa, Japan), Dennis Kramer, '14 (EWE Baskets; Oldenberg, Germany), Johnny Dee, '15 (Polpharma; Starogard Gdanski, Poland) and Christopher Anderson, '15 (Weissenhorn Youngstars; Weissenhorn, Germany).

* The USD basketball team will team up with the Poway Youth Basketball League Challenged Division with a clinic on January 19th... The Poway Challenged League is open to all players with intellectual disabilities... The division has been around for over 20 years and has grown from a handful of players to more than 100 participants... USD coaches and players will assist with warm-up drills, skills stations, and some entertaining three-point contests between selected USD players and PYBL Challenged participants... The fun event will take place at Meadowbrook Middle School in Poway from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 pm.

SCOUTING THE PEPPERDINE WAVES: The Pepperdine Waves (11-7, 4-3 WCC) have won four of their last five league contests, including a solid 67-64 win over Saint Mary's on January 9th... They are a perfect 7-0 in home games this season at Firestone Fieldhouse.. This past weekend they split their two bay area games, losing at Santa Clara (62-60) before rallying for an impressive 98-84 win over San Francisco... Against the USF Dons the Waves were paced by Lamond Murray Jr. (29 points, 9 rebounds) and Jeremy Major (20 points, 8 rebounds)... Pepperdine made 10-18 threes led by Major (5-6) and Murray (4-8)... For the season Pepperdine has four starters averaging double-digit scoring - Murray Jr. (15.4 ppg), Stacy Davis (13.7 ppg, 8.3 rpg), Jett Raines (11.7 ppg) and Major (10.0 ppg)... Murray Jr. leads the team in WCC scoring (17.0 ppg)... Head Coach Marty Wilson is in his 5th season.

A LOOK AHEAD: The Toreros close out their 4-game road swing at Loyola Marymount on Saturday (Jan. 23, 3pm). USD then returns to San Diego to host these same two Southern California teams - Pepperdine (Thur., Jan. 28, 7:30 p.m.) and Loyola Marymount (Sat., Jan. 30, 1:00 p.m.). Both games will be televised by Time Warner Cable SportsNet.