San Diego Toreros (8-16, 1-8 WCC) • Saint Mary's Gaels (19-5, 6-3 WCC)
Thursday, February 6 • 8 p.m.
Jenny Craig Pavilion (5,100) • San Diego, Calif.
TV • ESPNU | Live Audio | Live Stats
SAN DIEGO – San Diego will face Saint Mary's for the first time this season as the Toreros and Gaels will meet on Thursday at 8 p.m. in the Jenny Craig Pavilion.
The first of two meetings in the next five games, USD and Saint Mary's are both coming off losses last Saturday. The Toreros fell on the road to Pacific, 66-58, while the Gaels lost 81-79 at BYU.
Thursday's game can be watched on ESPNU, with Roxy Bernstein (play-by-play) and Corey Williams (analyst) on the call. The game can also be heard here, with the Voice of the Toreros Jack Cronin calling the action.
ALL-TIME SERIES AGAINST SAINT MARY'S
- Thursday will be the 89th all-time meeting between USD and Saint Mary's. The Toreros trail in the series, 36-52.
- San Diego has lost 12 straight to Saint Mary's, including all three meetings last season. In the last meeting, USD was eliminated from the WCC Tournament with a 69-62 semifinal loss.
- The last time USD beat Saint Mary's was January 30, 2014 at the Jenny Craig Pavilion (W, 61-43).
- The Toreros are 21-19 all-time at home against Saint Mary's, but they have lost five in a row at home.
- Three of the last four USD wins against Saint Mary's have been at home.
27-POINT EFFORT
- Braun Hartfield is coming off a 27-point effort against Pacific this past Saturday, giving him a new career-high for scoring. The redshirt junior was 10-of-18 from the field (55.6%), including 3-of-7 from three-point range.
- Hartfield, USD's leading scorer, has scored 25+ points twice this year and in both cases, he has gone 10-of-18 from the field. The 10 makes and 18 attempts are both career-highs.
- Hartfield is the sixth different Torero to have two or more 25-point games in a season over the last 10 years. It was also the 23rd time in the last 10 seasons a Torero had 27+ points (last: Isaiah Pineiro, 3/9/19 vs. BYU; Pineiro did it six times last season).
- Hartfield is tied with Joey Calcaterra for the most 20-point games by a Torero this year. Both have four.
- The 27 points against Pacific were more than Hartfield had in the two games prior (20) as he snapped out of a two-game stretch in which he shot 7-of-23 (30%) and 1-of-6 from three.
CLEANING THE GLASS
- In addition to the 27 points, Braun Hartfield also grabbed seven rebounds against Pacific. He is the third different Torero to have a 27-7 game in the last 10 seasons (others: Isaiah Pineiro, Cameron Neubauer). It was the eighth time it has happened in the last 10 years and first since Isaiah Pineiro had 27 and 12 against BYU on March 9, 2019.
BRAUN AS OF LATE
- Since scoring 25 against Hofstra in late November, Braun Hartfield is averaging a team-best 15.5 points on 43.8% shooting (95-of-217) and 38.1% from three (32-of-84). He is also averaging 5.9 rebonds, 1.9 assists and 1.0 steal over the same stretch.
- Hartfield is 13th in the WCC in scoring for overall games and 10th in rebounds. In conference-only games, he is 11th in scoring with 14.8 points.
HEATING UP
- Finn Sullivan joined Braun Hartfield in double-figures against Pacific as the sophomore had 11 off the bench on 5-of-9 shooting.
- In the last six games, Sullivan is averaging 12.0 points on 45.3% shooting (24-of-53). He also has 1.7 steals over that span. He has four double-digit scoring games over the half-dozen game stretch.
- For the season, Sullivan is averaging 7.0 points on 38.7% shooting.
- Sullivan has at least one steal in six straight games and has totaled 10 over the stretch. He had seven steals in his first 14 games of the year.
MARION'S HELPERS
- Redshirt freshman Marion Humphrey, who has returned to the starting lineup in the last two games after three consecutive games of coming off the bench, has three or more assists in seven of the last 11 games.
- Over the last 11 contests (since Dec. 21 vs. Stanford), Humphrey is averaging 3.0 assists and has a 2.2 assist-to-turnover ratio. His totals include 33 assists and 15 turnovers.
- Humphrey enters the week 14th in assists in WCC-only games (2.6).
BLOCK BY BLOCK
- Yauhen Massalski has six blocks in the last four games and a team-best 20 blocks this season (1.3/game).
- Massalski currently ranks fifth in program history with 113 career blocks. He is only the fifth Torero to have 100+ blocks in a career, and he has 40+ blocks in each of his first two seasons at USD.
- The Belarus native has a block in 11 of his 14 games this year. He has at least one block in 57 career games, which are the third-most since 2010-11 by a Torero (source: Sports Reference). Jito Kok (2013-16) had 111 career games with at least one block to lead the program.
All-Time Career Blocks
USD History
- Jito Kok (2012-15) - 193
- Scott Thompson (1983-87) - 183
- Gyno Pomare (2005-09) - 158
- Dondi Bell (1987-1991) - 129
- Yauhen Massalski (2017-Current) - 113
ON THE BOARDS
- In addition to accumulating blocks, Yauhen Massalski has been the team leader in rebounds in three of the last five games. He has double-digit rebounds in two of the last four, including 10 against Santa Clara on January 25 and 14 at Portland on January 18.
- In the last five games, Massalski is averaging 8.2 rebounds. He has a 6.7 clip for the entire season.
FROM BEYOND THE ARC
- USD has attempted 12 and 14 three-pointers in its last two games, both of which are the fewest for the Toreros in a game this year. In the two-game stretch, they are shooting 19.2% (5-of-26).
- The Toreros are 8-of-47 (17%) from beyond the arc in the last three games.
