LOS ANGELES – San Diego trailed by five points with just over a minute to go but were closed out by Grand Canyon's overpowering free throw makes, falling 55-68 from inside the Intuit Dome in a West Coast Hoops Showdown contest that was closer than the final score indicated.
 
The six points at the charity stripe in the final minute were representative of the game's totality in which the Lopes scored 36 points off free throws on 42 attempts and were held by the Torero defense to just 15 made field goals, 27.8% FG and 16.7% from 3-point land. San Diego made seven more shots from the field than their counterpart, two more threes as GCU didn't convert from beyond the arc for the first 31 minutes of the game. 

No Division I team had ever won a regulation-length game by making 35 or more free throws and shooting less than 30% from the field until the Lopes did so Saturday, according to the Stathead database.
 
The Toreros also made it two straight games out rebounding their counterpart in what was the 2024 non-conference slate finale. The Toreros fall to 3-10, 0-1 in Quad 3 prior to the start of WCC Play. 
 
Coming off the bench for the first time this season, junior guard Kjay Bradley Jr. notched his fourth 20-plus point game of the season in his hometown of Inglewood, Calif..
 
Sophomore forward Santiago Trouet, coming off the back of a historic 20-rebound game, notched his fourth double-double of the season with 14 rebounds and 17 points.
 
How it Happened

• Freshman guard Tony Duckett returned to the Torero lineup, making his fifth start of the season

• In what would be foreshadowing for the rest of the afternoon, the game started with GCU trips to the free throw line, but the Toreros made the first field goal of the night
• Grand Canyon had a three-minute stretch early without a field goal, but built a 10-4 lead on an 8-0 foul discrepancy
• Eight Toreros came off the bench in the opening 12 minutes
• Also indicative for the rest of the night, it was an ugly shooting night for both teams, with USD going 3-13 and GCU 1-14
• Bradley Jr. scored the game's two lone threes in the first half
• At the break, San Diego trailed 26-31 while Trouet and Bradley Jr. both had 10 points
• Turnover woes picked up to start the second period for USD
• The Toreros would go on a 7-0 scoring run over a two-minute span, cutting the lead back to five
• Grand Canyon made it's first two threes of the game with 9:24 remaining to extend their lead back to double digits
• Toreros made another run to chip away at the deficit, led by scores from Bradley Jr. and sophomore guard Joey Chammaa, who finished the game with nine points
• San Diego's inevitable foul trouble caught up to the Toreros with senior center Steven Jamerson II fouling out early in the second half, as did freshman guard Jackson Gaffney and two others reached the threshold of four personals
• Another Torero run got the game within five with 1:15 to go
• GCU held strong, however, making six of six attempts at the charity stripe in the closing minute to seal the game at a game-high 13 points

Up Next
The Toreros return home to kick off WCC play hosting Pacific on Monday, Dec. 30 at 7 p.m. inside the Jenny Craig Pavilion. 
 
Post Game Quotes
Head Coach Steve Lavin
 
Opening statement…
Really proud of the progress we made defensively, and I think the numbers bare that out. I've coached a long time, and I think it's the first time in my experience where we had seven more field goals [than the opponent], and yet they won by double figures and then some. But we were able to keep battling back, because if you look at the defensive numbers, I think they shot 27 percent from the field, and basically 17 percent from the three. So, a lot of progress. We were plus-four in the paint. So things we've been focused on and working on defensively: they still were able to get into the paint and get downhill, as we say, in terms of dribble penetration, there were some times in terms of our positioning off the ball, we wanted to be more compact, what we call being in the gaps, like eight in a box in football, across the line of scrimmage when you're facing a great running back, because you know they're going to keep handing it to them, and they continue to drive it. And that got them to the bonus, the double-bonus, and ultimately they were rewarded with that aggressiveness with 42 free throws. We have to continue to drill on how to move our feet with good technique, be aggressive and limit penetration by using our shield. And at times we use our hands. Like fourth grade CYO, you teach them with the feet, slide the feet, don't use your hands. So those principles, those concepts at every level of basketball, is something you have to keep working on so we can get better in terms of habits. 
 
On David Simon's injury…
Tough loss, with David Simon likely out for the season now with his injury, so we're really in a position to encourage him and be there for him. And that's what the message in the locker room was: it's what teams do, what families do, what communities do, you step up and support those you care about. And that's true brotherhood in terms of actions and deeds, not just words or slogans or bumper stickers or mantras, but to really be there for David, because his first year he missed with two broken feet, and now he's got a broken hand. 
 
On the upcoming week…
We've got to put this one behind us and focus on the start of conference play. Everyone is zero and zero when you step into your league. We've got two home games, a great opportunity to finish 2024 with a W, and have that carry over with some momentum for starting 2025. And then we go on the road. This next week, you have the game coming up against Pacific, and then Santa Clara and then we go up to Oregon State, then we're going to Gonzaga. So these next two weeks are really critical, and it's a fresh start, a new beginning. We have to capitalize. It won't be easy. No one's going to hand us anything we talked about that we didn't get the whistle we would have preferred to have had tonight, but that's life as well. You've just got to keep getting better. No excuses.
 
On his biggest takeaways from non-conference play…
You know, we challenged ourselves, and I'm proud of the team's resiliency, even though we didn't get to the winner's circle as much as we would have preferred. We'd love for that record to be reversed, to be 10 and three, and we were very close, but the 'coulda, woulda, shoulda,' as we know, only counts in horseshoes…we just need to learn from that report card. And there were different elements, like in some games we struggled with our defense, and then there were games where we just didn't shoot the ball well from the three, or we left too many points at the foul line, or we put the opponent at the foul line too much. But with that said, there were some silver linings. There are areas that we've improved, both in terms of individual players. Joey Chammaa is someone who's come on and played well for us. Santiago is playing at a really high level. Kjay has had some stretches where he plays brilliantly, and then other stretches where he's still learning in terms of how to direct our attack and orchestrate things and get his teammates involved and really establish the rhythm and the tempo for our team. But that takes time. Jackson Gaffney is back. He's going to get better with each game opportunity. We gave Neel Beniwal an opportunity in the first half, so we have to build on our depth because of the number of injuries we've had, but I'd say overall, it was a learning experience, 15 underclassmen, seven newcomers, and the number of injuries. So I think we've learned. And through playing Arizona State, playing San Diego State, playing Grand Canyon, those are quality teams that may end up in the NCAA Tournament.