SAN DIEGO — San Diego men's basketball (0-0, 0-0 WCC) tips off the 2026-27 regular season Monday night, hosting Biola (0-0, 0-0 PacWest) at the Jenny Craig Pavilion in the first official game of JR Blount's head coaching career. The Toreros went 1-1 in exhibition play, beating Colorado State 73-58 at home and falling 82-50 at No. 22 UCLA.
Tipoff against the Eagles is set for 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 2. Tickets for the home opener are on sale now.
The game will stream live on ESPN+, with Jack Cronin on the play-by-play call and Alex Miniak as the analyst.
Live statistics will be available on StatBroadcast and USDToreros.com.
LAST TIME OUT: TOREROS FALL AT NO. 22 UCLA IN EXHIBITION FINALE
• San Diego was within four points of No. 22 UCLA in the final minute of the first half on Oct. 27 at Pauley Pavilion before the Bruins pulled away in the second half for an 82-50 win in the Toreros' exhibition finale. UCLA led 35-29 at halftime and won the second half 47-21, opening it on a 13-2 run.
• The game's only tie came at 2-2 on Sekou Konneh's tip-in dunk, and UCLA went back in front for good on its next basket. After the Bruins pushed their lead to 10 at 25-15 with 6:37 left in the half, San Diego answered with eight of the next 11 points; Chace Holley's driving layup started the push, and Terry McMorris' second layup of the stretch made it 28-23 with 3:49 to go.
• Down 32-23 after a UCLA 3-pointer with 1:51 left, the Toreros got four free throws from Antonio Munoz and a driving layup from Braylon Roman to pull within 33-29 with 46 seconds remaining. San Diego outrebounded UCLA 27-22 in the first half, including 14 offensive boards.
• Out of the break, two UCLA free throws and a Davion Hill hook shot made it 37-31 with 19:29 left. The Bruins then scored 11 straight points over 2:53 for a 48-31 lead before freshman Brannon Martinsen ended the run with a 3-pointer off a Holley assist. The lead first went past 20 at 55-34 with 12:44 left and peaked at 32 with 2:09 to go, and UCLA outrebounded USD 28-17 after halftime.
• Dusty Stromer led San Diego with 14 points, and both of his 3-pointers came in the second half. McMorris added 13 off the bench on 3-of-6 shooting and 7-of-9 free throws, Konneh grabbed a team-high eight rebounds (six offensive), Munoz had six points and five rebounds, Martinsen had four points and a team-high three steals, and Holley had four points, a team-high two assists and a block.
• Reserves scored 32 of USD's 50 points. UCLA went 31 of 38 at the free-throw line, scored 24 points off 15 Torero turnovers and held a 16-0 edge in fast-break points, while San Diego shot 24.2 percent from the field and 4 of 25 from three. Trent Perry led four Bruins in double figures with 17 points and seven assists.
ABOUT BIOLA
• San Diego leads the all-time series with Biola 5-4, and Monday's game is the first meeting since the 1973-74 season, when the Toreros won 70-49. Eight of the nine games were played from 1957-58 through 1960-61, when the teams met twice a season, and USD has won the last three, including 102-61 and 110-70 in 1960-61, the only two 100-point games for that Torero team.
• Biola, an NCAA Division II program in La Mirada, Calif., went 15-13 overall and 11-11 in the PacWest Conference in 2025-26 and was picked to finish tied for seventh with Chaminade in the 2026-27 PacWest preseason poll. The Eagles joined the PacWest in 2017-18 and reached the NCAA Division II Tournament in 2021 and 2025.
• Dave Holmquist is in his 50th season as a college head coach and his 47th at Biola. His 1,095 career wins rank fourth all-time among men's college basketball coaches at four-year schools, and he is one of six four-year men's coaches with 1,000 victories. His 1981-82 team went 39-1 and finished as NAIA national runner-up, and his 1983-84 team won the NCCAA national title.
• Holmquist also played two seasons at Biola after transferring from Cypress College and was the Eagles' captain as a senior in 1973-74, the last season the programs met.
• Biola must replace its top three scorers from 2025-26, but seniors Charlie Gehler, Facundo Aranda and Walker Weir return after combining for 56 starts that season. Gehler averaged 11.6 points, made a team-high 71 threes and led the PacWest in 3-point percentage (44.9) in 2025-26, while Weir averaged 6.2 points and Aranda 5.2.
• Gehler played at St. Augustine High School in San Diego and led San Diego Miramar College in scoring (17.3 ppg) as a freshman in 2023-24 before a season at Azusa Pacific. Newcomer Brycen Mackenzie, a redshirt sophomore guard from Northwest Nazarene, was a four-year varsity point guard at Santa Fe Christian in Solana Beach.
• USD assistant coach Jeremy Pope played for Holmquist at Biola, joining the Eagles as a senior guard in 2012-13 after transferring from San Jose State.
SEASON OPENERS
• San Diego is 46-24 in season openers since 1956-57 and 31-16 since moving to Division I in 1979-80.
• The Toreros have won four of their last five openers, all four of the wins at home against non-Division I opponents: La Verne (103-38 in 2021-22), Sonoma State (81-59 in 2022-23 and 68-64 in 2023-24) and Occidental (88-59 in 2025-26). The lone loss in that span was a 68-67 decision against Rider to open 2024-25.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
#4 Dusty Stromer | Senior | 6-6 | Guard | Sherman Oaks, Calif. | Notre Dame HS | Grand Canyon
Exhibition at No. 22 UCLA (Oct. 27)
• Stromer started at guard and led San Diego with 14 points on 5-of-16 shooting, including 2 of 10 from three, and drew four fouls. Both of his 3-pointers came in the second half; in the first, he scored six of USD's first 13 points and assisted on Jose Roberto Tanchyn's 3-pointer that cut the deficit to 19-13 with 10:10 left.
Exhibition vs. Colorado State (Oct. 25)
• Stromer started at guard and played a team-high 30 minutes, finishing with seven points, a steal, a block and a team-high five fouls drawn. His block of Carey Booth's layup at the first-half horn preserved a 33-28 lead.
#8 Jevon Hill | Graduate | 6-9 | Forward | Wichita, Kan. | Legacy School of Sport Sciences | Central Missouri
Exhibition at No. 22 UCLA (Oct. 27)
• Hill started at forward and grabbed three rebounds, two of them offensive, in 12 minutes, going 0 for 3 from 3-point range.
Exhibition vs. Colorado State (Oct. 25)
• Hill made 5 of 10 threes — every one of his field-goal attempts came from behind the arc — and all three of his free throws for a team-high 18 points in 24 minutes, adding two steals and a game-best plus-26.
#2 Davion Hill | Junior | 6-2 | Guard | Williamsport, Pa. | Neumann Regional Academy | Ball State
Exhibition at No. 22 UCLA (Oct. 27)
• Hill started at guard and had two points, three rebounds, an assist and a steal in 19 minutes. His hook shot 31 seconds into the second half made it 37-31.
Exhibition vs. Colorado State (Oct. 25)
• Hill had 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting (2 of 4 from three) with five rebounds, four assists and two steals in 19 minutes in his Torero debut, finishing plus-18. Nine of his points came after halftime: a driving layup 14 seconds into the second half, a second-chance three that made it 50-36 and floaters at 6:14 and 2:55 that each pushed the lead to 21 points.
#24 Terry McMorris | Junior | 6-6 | Wing | Oklahoma City, Okla. | OKC Douglass | Eastern Illinois
Exhibition at No. 22 UCLA (Oct. 27)
• McMorris scored 13 points off the bench on 3-of-6 shooting and 7-of-9 free throws, drawing a team-high six fouls, and added three rebounds and a block in 22 minutes. He scored on two layups as USD cut a 10-point deficit to 28-23 late in the first half, and seven of his points came after halftime, including a three-point play on a Chace Holley assist.
Exhibition vs. Colorado State (Oct. 25)
• McMorris did not attempt a shot in 14 minutes but grabbed five defensive rebounds and blocked two shots — a Jaxon Clark layup in the first half and a Jase Butler drive in the second.
#1 Chace Holley | Freshman | 6-0 | Guard | Inglewood, Calif. | Redondo Union HS
Exhibition at No. 22 UCLA (Oct. 27)
• Holley had four points, a team-high two assists, three rebounds and a block in 16 minutes off the bench. His driving layup started the first-half push that cut UCLA's lead from 10 to five, and he assisted on Brannon Martinsen's 3-pointer that ended an 11-0 Bruins run and on Terry McMorris' three-point play.
Exhibition vs. Colorado State (Oct. 25)
• Holley scored nine points on 4-of-7 shooting with two rebounds, an assist and a steal in 23 minutes off the bench in his college debut. Two of his baskets came in transition in the first half — a driving layup off his own steal that made it 16-10 and a layup off a turnover that pushed the lead to 31-22 with 4:21 left in the half.
#10 Marqui Worthy | Senior | 6-4 | Guard | Anaheim, Calif. | Veritas Prep Academy | UC Riverside
Exhibition at No. 22 UCLA (Oct. 27)
• Worthy started at guard and had two rebounds and two steals in 10 minutes, going 0 for 5 from the field.
Exhibition vs. Colorado State (Oct. 25)
• Worthy started at guard and had 10 points, five rebounds (three offensive), three assists, a block and a team-high three steals in 25 minutes in his first game as a Torero. He scored USD's second and third baskets — a layup and a three off his own steal — during a 10-2 start, and he assisted on the Davion Hill layup and Jevon Hill three that opened the second half.
#25 Sekou Konneh | Junior | 6-9 | Forward | Milwaukee, Wis. | St. Thomas More | DePaul / Milwaukee
Exhibition at No. 22 UCLA (Oct. 27)
• Konneh started at forward and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds, six of them offensive, in 21 minutes. His tip-in dunk tied the game at 2-2, the only tie of the night.
Exhibition vs. Colorado State (Oct. 25)
• Konneh won the opening tip, started at forward and finished with seven points, a team-high six rebounds and three assists in 19 minutes; his plus-24 trailed only Jevon Hill. His two free throws with 55 seconds left in the first half and his floater at 16:40 of the second bookended a 9-0 run that spanned halftime and turned a 31-28 game into 40-28, and his fast-break layup off a Davion Hill feed made it 67-46.
#7 Antonio Munoz | Sophomore | 6-6 | Wing | Chicago, Ill. | Whitney Young HS | Grambling State
Exhibition at No. 22 UCLA (Oct. 27)
• Munoz had six points, five rebounds, a steal and a block in 18 minutes off the bench. All four of his free throws came in the last two minutes of the first half, when the Toreros cut a 32-23 deficit to 33-29.
Exhibition vs. Colorado State (Oct. 25)
• Munoz had two points, a rebound and a steal in eight minutes. His steal and fast-break jumper, followed 25 seconds later by a Chace Holley steal and layup, turned consecutive Rams turnovers into a 16-10 lead in the first half.
#14 Jose Roberto Tanchyn | Senior | 6-10 | Forward | Cordoba, Spain | IES Litoral | UMBC
Exhibition at No. 22 UCLA (Oct. 27)
• Tanchyn had three points and a rebound in 15 minutes off the bench. His 3-pointer off a Dusty Stromer assist cut UCLA's lead to 19-13 with 10:10 left in the first half.
Exhibition vs. Colorado State (Oct. 25)
• Tanchyn had three points, a rebound and a steal in 20 minutes. His three with 9:07 left capped an 8-0 run and pushed the lead to 55-36, the Toreros' largest to that point.
#5 Brannon Martinsen | Freshman | 6-6 | Wing | Santa Ana, Calif. | Sierra Canyon HS
Exhibition at No. 22 UCLA (Oct. 27)
• Martinsen had four points and a team-high three steals in 18 minutes off the bench. His 3-pointer off a Chace Holley assist ended an 11-0 UCLA run early in the second half.
Exhibition vs. Colorado State (Oct. 25)
• Martinsen played 15 minutes in his college debut and grabbed two rebounds. His offensive rebound with 11:19 left set up Davion Hill's second-chance three for a 50-36 lead.
