SAN DIEGO – Leading for nearly 31 minutes, the San Diego men's basketball team (14-12, 7-6 WCC) defeated Pacific (7-18, 2-8 WCC) on Saturday, 60-54.
 
Senior Marcellus Earlington led the Toreros with 14 points (3-5 3FG) and six rebounds.  
 
Redshirt senior Vladimir Pinchuk added 12 points (5-8 FG) and five rebounds in the win. After Pacific took a three-point lead with 14:48 remaining, Pinchuk scored seven straight points for San Diego.
 
Graduate student Josh Parrish scored 11 points, including 10 in the first half after making his first five field goal attempts.
 
San Diego improves to 14-12 (7-6 WCC) on the season, and will travel to Portland on Thursday.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• San Diego used an early 7-0 run to go ahead 9-3. Pacific answered with a 6-0 spurt to tie it.
• An 11-0 San Diego run, including a Terrell Brown-Soares layup, two Wayne McKinney free throws, a Parrish put-back, a McKinney layup, and a Pinchuk three-point play quickly put USD back on top.
• Parrish scored three straight buckets for USD midway through the first half, the latest putting the home team up 28-20.
• Joey Calcaterra answered a Pacific triple with a jumper to end the half. After 20 minutes, San Diego maintained a 32-27 advantage.
• Pacific scored the first eight points of the second half to take the lead.
• Pinchuk ended an 8:34 second half scoring drought with seven straight points for USD.
• Jase Townsend made three-pointers on consecutive possessions to make it a 45-39 San Diego lead.
• After Pacific cut the deficit to two, Townsend and Earlington hit back-to-back triples with less than two minutes left.
• Earlington and Parrish each hit one free throw under the :20 second mark the seal the win.

TORERO TIDBITS

• Earlington went into double-figures for the 20^th time this season. He ranks 11^th in the WCC with 13.8 PPG.
• San Diego earned sweeps of Pacific, Pepperdine, and LMU for the first time in program history.
• USD's seven WCC wins are the most at this point in the season since 2008.
• Pinchuk went into double figures for the fourth time this season.
• Townsend ended with nine points, all on three-pointers. He and Calcaterra led the team with three assists each.
• McKinney went 4-4 from the free throw line and had two steals.
• USD held a 23-9 advantage in bench points.
• Pacific was held to 2-11 (18.2%) from long range in the second half.

UP NEXT
San Diego heads to Portland on Thursday for the last road game of the regular season. USD holds a 59-31 lead in the all-time series, including seven straight wins. On January 13, the Toreros won in overtime, 68-63.