SAN DIEGO –  Torero Men's Hoops fell to cross-town rival No. 24 San Diego State in Viejas Arena Saturday night by a final score of 57-74.
 
The underdog Toreros led early in the second half in their first matchup with SDSU in five years, but were out-rebounded and ceded costly turnovers that allowed the Aztecs to pull away.
 
Senior forward Bendji Pierre had a career night, scoring a personal best and matching the game high with 17 points. The native of Irvington, N.J. hadn't converted on a three coming into the game but broke out with five in the contest.
 
Sophomore forward Santiago Trouet was one rebound shy of his fifth game with double-digit boards but held the tied game high with nine, also notching two steals and a block.
 
How it Happened

• Head Coach Steve Lavin ran out the same starting five of Trouet, Jamerson II, Bradley Jr., Dahlke and Duckett for the third consecutive game
• The Toreros notched two blocks early to lead a strong defensive front reciprocated on the other end, seeing the two sides tied 11-11 at the first media timeout
• Just one field goal was made by the ensuing under-12 media timeout, the Aztecs leading 13-11
• A 9-0 run by SDSU created the first separation of the contest
• Both teams had field goal droughts of nearly four minutes in length, ended by a finish under the basket by redshirt senior forward Colby Brooks to cut the lead to 18-27
• The Toreros would go on to a 12-2 run, headed by three Pierre buckets from within the arc, coming within one of the hosts, 28-29
• At the half the Toreros trailed 31-33, however leading their neighbors east on I-8 in field goal percentage, 3-point percentage, also out-rebounding the Aztecs in the first 20 minutes of play
• Four made free throws to start the second period saw USD take a 34-33 lead, its first since early in the game
• In fact, the Toreros first six points, 9 of 14 to start the second, came at the charity stripe as struggles shooting from the field emerged
• The Aztecs took advantage of that and took control of the paint, going on an 8-0 run to open a 10-point lead
• Pierre made two more threes, his fourth and fifth on the night, to surpass his previous career high and bring the Toreros within four points
• Another SDSU 8-0 outburst saw them put the game out of reach with inside three minutes remaining, leading by as much as 18
• The game concluded with the final score reading 74-57 in favor of the hosting San Diego State program

 
Up Next
The Toreros return home for their tenth non-conference game to start the season, eighth at home, hosting Long Beach State on Tuesday, Dec. 10 in the Jenny Craig Pavilion at 7 p.m.. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Jack Cronin and Braden Surprenant calling the action, while inside coverage can also be found on the @USDMBB social accounts.
 
Post Game Quotes
 
Senior Forward Bendji Pierre
 
On where he found comfort…
Just my teammates. My teammates telling me to keep on shooting. I've been in the slump for the past two weeks now, but my teammates are always telling me to keep on shooting because they know I'm a good shooter. So that's that. And just reps I get. I get a lot of reps in practice and after practice, and I really respect my craft. So, I just, I love basketball, so that's what this is and what I do. For that first one [made three] it's like, 'okay, here we go, yeah, for sure.' That's when the floodgates start coming, for sure.
 
On him helping the team keeping him shooting…
Yeah, definitely, definitely. I'm a shooter for this team, and I think that's what I've got to do to have my team win.
 
On competitiveness against SDSU…
It just all about, Coach is always big on, 'next play, next play, next play.' So that's something that developed throughout my years. I had a lot of ups and downs, so this is a big game. So just to stay in the next play. That's pretty much it.
 
On what led to the Aztecs taking over…
Just mistakes, rebounds and that's pretty much it. But we'll be better, though. I think this is a good step in the right direction.
 
USD Head Coach Steve Lavin
 
On whether it was USD's best game yet…
Well, we played our best 13 minutes of the year against Arizona state. We built a 17-5 lead over there, but then didn't sustain it. I thought tonight, we played our best 20 minutes of the season, but again didn't sustain it. Turnovers hurt us. They went inside effectively. The second half, they got points in the paint, second-shot opportunities, some off missed block-out assignments on free throws that were problematic for us. At some point, they're going to make shots. You know, I thought defensively holding them to 22-percent from the three in the first half and 37 [percent] overall, that's where we needed to be. But they stepped up their aggression level, got on the glass. We were fighting some foul trouble. So what I really emphasize with our players is that it's about getting better. I thought this was a big week for us. Arizona State was Tuesday, and then a couple of days of prep to come back on Saturday against another quality team. So, we made a step in the right direction, but we're not into moral victories, as coaches like to say, so disappointed with the outcome, but encouraged by the progress we made.
 
On Volunteer Assistant Justin Hutson…
You know, because of this game he wasn't able to. I mean, because he recently was hired, he's naturally ... in fact, I think they [SDSU Women's Basketball] might have been in Cancun last week, and then I think they played yesterday. When he's able to spend time with us, he's been terrific. We think the world of him. He's family, as we say. But naturally, he's focused on his responsibilities with the Aztecs on the women's side.
 
On Pierre's performance…
He shot really well yesterday when we came in here to practice last night. And sometimes – not always – sometimes, you practice really well, and then none of it carries over. And sometimes you practice poorly, and you come out like gangbusters. That's part of the mystery of working with 18-to-22-year-olds, but I thought he had a good week of practice and his shot mechanics are as good as it gets, but I think he's still establishing a level of confidence and finding his rhythm, so I'm pleased with his kind of breakthrough performance this evening. One thing I emphasize with them is, when he catches it – and he did it even some tonight – he'll sometimes pass up, and he's six-eight, so it's unlikely he's going to get that shot blocked very often. So, it's more doing your work before the catch, being down and ready and letting it go. I thought on his makes, he did that, but he at times is focused on the closeout so much that he'll get into pump faking and putting it on the floor and then taking a shot that's more contested than the original catch. And so, we've worked on that some that having a mindset of letting it go, and then we can offensive rebound if he misses it, or at least try to offensive rebound if he misses it. So, I think he made progress in that regard, in terms of being down and ready and not hesitating.
 
On the state of three DI college basketball teams in San Diego…
I think, yes, San Diego basketball at all levels, you know, has always had good history. But you know, even looking at San Diego City College's success and San Marcos through the years, Point Loma, and as you mentioned, UC San Diego is definitely a rising program, and we're trying to climb the ladder in our conference and become more competitive. And San Diego State – seemingly for decades – has had a successful program, so it's a good thing for the high school prospects. It's also a place where you know high level players are coming out of San Diego, and some are staying home, and some are going elsewhere. But, glad to know that that people understand and respect how good basketball is in San Diego.
 
San Diego State Head Coach Brian Dutcher
Hey, we're the city champs! Got both division one teams, so, it was a good game. Obviously, we knew San Diego was going to come in here and compete. They're well-coached. They've got talented players too, and they put up a good fight. They overcame an 11-point lead by us in the first half, and it was with the three-point shot – that's a great equalizer in basketball. And Pierre was 0-for-10 on the season, from three, in eight games, and he was five-for-11 against us tonight. I watched him on tape, and I knew he could shoot. He hadn't made any, but we were aware of his ability to shoot the ball and his confidence. He has great confidence in himself. When you run into a night when a guy that doesn't make a lot makes five, then the game is close. To our credit, we thought the key to the game was [Kjay] Bradley [Jr.] on ball screens. I think we did a decent job guarding him on ball screens. He had eight turnovers, which is a lot for a point guard, but our defense caused a lot of those. They shot 19.2% in the second half, so obviously our defense spurred us on. The best thing we did offensively was ball screen and roll. We screened and rolled whether it was on the fast break, just randomly set them in or set plays, or calls. Anything we screen, we rolled to the basket hard this game, and if we missed, we rebounded. If the guard didn't draw a second defender, he scored lay-ups, and if he did, we made the pass to the big and they finished. I think we did an "A" job on screen and roll at the offensive end. Other things we did offensively were probably too rushed. We work all the time on flowing from the set play into a secondary offense, a flow offense, and we're just pressing so hard to make things happen on the first side of the floor that we never got into any kind of flow. We were just trying to make anything happen right away. I felt like we had 20 turnovers. We only had 11, but we had a lot of careless ones at the end, just not forced, just throwing them the ball. That can't happen. We're learning. We're growing as a team.