USDvsUSFgame25

GAME #25: The USD Toreros (8-16, 3-10 WCC) will close out their bay area trip with a Saturday game against the USF Dons (13-11, 6-7 WCC). The contest will be played at 3:00 p.m. at War Memorial at The Sobrato Center.

SERIES RECORD: This is the 78th meeting between USD and USF with the Dons owning a 41-36 advantage... USF downed USD 73-65 on Jan. 7th in San Diego... The Toreros received a team-high 19 points from Vasa Pusica; USF was led by Ronnie Boyce (22)...The Toreros won both meetings last season - 57-56 at USF on Jan. 1, 2015 and 77-69 on Jan. 31, 2015 at the Jenny Craig Pavilion.

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 be broadcast on CSN California, TWC SportsNet and the The W.tv (out-of-market).

WCC STANDINGS (thru Feb. 11th): Gonzaga (12-2 WCC, 20-5), Saint Mary's (10-3, 19-4), BYU (9-4, 18-8), Pepperdine (8-6, 15-10), San Francisco (6-7, 13-11), Santa Clara (5-8, 9-16), Pacific (5-8, 7-16), Portland (5-9, 11-16), LMU (4-10, 11-14), San Diego (3-10, 8-16).

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 FALL TO SCU BRONCOS 74-71: The host SCU Broncos held off the USD Toreros 74-71 Thursday evening. Jared Brownridge scored a game-high 19 points including four clutch free throws in the final 36 seconds. USD received a team-high 18 points from Duda Sanadze off the bench. Olin Carter III chipped in with 14 points. In the first half the Toreros jumped out to a 9-2 lead only to see the host Broncos heat up behind the 3-point arc. SCU made 6-of-11 three balls with 6-11 Henrik Jadersten connecting on 2-of-3 and a game leading 10 points for a 36-32 intermission lead. USD was paced by Sanadze with 8 points. In the second half USD got out of the gates quickly once again with an 8-2 start in taking a 40-38 advantage. The Broncos would battle back and go up by 56-49 with 10:05 to go on a Jared Brownridge lay-in. Trailing 59-52, Jito Kok would score five straight points to pull the Toreros within 59-57 with 6:21 to go. A Carter three would get USD to within 61-60 with 5 minutes left. Trailing 66-63 the Toreros missed a three from the right corner and a lay-in before SCU's Jared Brownridge connected on a tough shot along the right baseline to put the Broncos up five at 68-63 with 57 seconds left. SCU would close with 6-6 shooting from the free throw line.

TORERO TIDBITS:
* This season USD is 1-9 in "true" away games, and 3-11 overall away from the JCP... USD's lone "true" road win came at Portland on January 14th by the score of 82-71... Duda Sanadze leads USD in scoring in both scenarios - 13.6 ppg for the fourteen overall away games and 12.3 ppg in the ten "true" away contests.

* In last Saturday's loss to Saint Mary's, the Toreros were 0-11 in three-point attempts... That broke a streak of 265 straight games with the Toreros making at least one three-pointer in a game... The last time USD went without a made three was on January 12, 2008 in a 46-41 home victory against San Francisco... USD was 0-7 beyond the three-point arc.

* Senior center Jito Kok ranks 1st in the WCC (#17 in nation thru games of Feb. 11) in blocked shots at 2.58 per game (62 in 24 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: 255 and counting... He is now 3rd all-time among WCC players, trailing only #1 Hondre Brewer of USF, 279 and #2 Omar Samhan of SMC, 258... With a minimum of 6 games left in the season, Kok needs 4 more blocks to move into the #2 spot, and would need 25 to set a new all-time WCC record... He ranks 6th among active career Division I blocked shot leaders (255).

* Against Pacific on Feb. 4th, sophomore guard Vasa Pusica matched his career-high of 19 points he set earlier this season against San Francisco... Against Pacific he converted all eight field goal attempts including a perfect 3-3 from beyond the arc... This season he has reached double-digit scoring eight times, including 17-point efforts against CSUN & LMU.

* Sophomore guard Marcus Harris made it back into the line-up at LMU on Jan. 23rd after missing four games due to an eye injury suffered late in the USF game on January 7th... He scored a career-high 23 points to lead the Toreros past the LMU Lions 77-69 at the JCP on January 30th... He made 7-11 shots from the field, 4-8 threes and 5-7 free throws.

* In the home win over LMU the Toreros buried 10-of-20 three-pointers... Besides Harris' 4-8 shooting, freshman guard Olin Carter III was 2-2; senior forward Duda Sanadze was 2-4, junior forward Brett Bailey was 1-2 and sophomore guard Vasa Pusica was 1-4... This marked the third time USD made 10 or more threes leading to a win - SDSU (10-27), CSUN (15-35)... The CSUN numbers are both single game records for makes and attempts.

* The WCC announced on January 22nd the adjusted WCC Men's Basketball Championship bracket. It has been revised to a nine-team format after the WCC membership reconfigured its men's basketball tournament due to the University of the Pacific's withdrawal. The #8 and #9 seeds will play on Friday, March 4th in a 6:00 p.m. contest (BYUtv, TheW.tv) with the winner advancing to play the #1 seed on Saturday, March 5th, in the 7:00 p.m. contest (ESPN2/WatchESPN).

* 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.

* 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).

SCOUTING THE SAN FRANCISCO DONS: The San Francisco Dons (13-11, 6-7 WCC) saw their 2-game winning streak snapped by the BYU Cougars this past Thursday in San Francisco by the score of 114-89... BYU guard Nick Emery made 10-12 threes on his way to a career-best 37 points... Chase Fischer added 22 points as six Cougars reached double digits... USF received a team-high 29 points from guard Devin Watson, with Tim Derksen chipping in 25 points... USF trailed 58-39 at halftime... Leading up to the BYU game the Dons had defeated Menlo College (100-68) and Santa Clara (89-86, overtime)... USF, which is 9-6 in home games this season, is paced by Watson (20.2 ppg, #2 in WCC), Derksen (15.9 ppg) and Ronnie Boyce (11.3 ppg)... In WCC games only, Watson averages 20.5 ppg (#4 in WCC) followed by Boyce (16.1) and Derksen (15.5)... Head Coach Rex Walters is in his 8th season with the Dons.

A LOOK AHEAD: The Toreros return to San Diego to host travel-partner BYU (Thur., Feb. 18th, 8pm on ESPNU); then play at BYU two nights later in Provo (Sat., Feb. 20th, 6pm Pacific on BYUtv).