SAN DIEGO – USD men's hoops got back to winning ways with a 71-58 win over a red-hot Portland side Wednesday night inside the Jenny Craig Pavilion.
Trailing the Pilots at the half, San Diego was able to overcome the deficit by way of a stark contrast in 3-point shooting. Portland went 2-19 (10.5%) from beyond the arc, while the Toreros were a strong 12-26 (46.2%), 7-13 (53.8%) in the second half. The guests had a stretch of twelve straight missed triples, while the hosts had one of seven consecutive made.
Leading the Toreros to victory was none other than senior guard
Juanse Gorosito, who played the first two years of his collegiate career with the Pilots and was being celebrated for surpassing 1,000 career points, prior to the game. The Argentine went for 19 points on 5-8 3-point shooting with five rebounds, five assists and three steals against his old allegiance.
3-pointers weren't the only demise of Portland, one of the WCC's hottest teams entering the game after an upset of No. 6 Gonzaga a week ago today and a walk-off of Seattle U Saturday. USD tallied 22 assists, 11 steals and again finished on the plus-side of rebounds with 12 offensive rebounds, nine in the second period.
How it Happened
- USD rolled out its 15th different starting lineup of the season
- Five of the Toreros' first six shots of the game were threes, they just couldn't get them to go to start, seeing UP take an early lead
- Gorosito went straight to work vs. his former team, his squad within reach
- In a low-scoring first half, the Toreros trailed 27-31
- A burst out of the gates in the second half saw the Toreros swing that 2-point deficit into a double-digit lead quickly as they nailed four straight threes, three out of the hands of grad guard Toneari Lane
- The hosts never looked back from there, also finding success in the paint late in the game to lead by as much as 15
- San Diego closed out the contest with a 71-58 victory
Notable
- USD led for just 26 more seconds of total game time than Portland in a tale of two halves, with eight lead changes
- Toneari Lane scored his 1,500th career NCAA DI point with another 14 on the night off four made threes
- Redshirt-junior Emmanuel Callas featured in starting lineup No. 15 of the season for the Toreros, San Diego improves to 7-1 all-time in games that Callas starts
- Redshirt-freshman Gavin Ripp tallied career bests of nine points and five assists
- The 58 points allowed were the second least by USD's defense this season
- The Toreros held Portland's WCC Freshman of the Year front-runner Joel Foxwell (15.3 ppg) to 2-11 shooting on the night
- Portland made its first three of the night but then went on to miss 12 straight while the Toreros had a stretch of seven straight converted
Up Next
The Toreros continue the final home stand of the year on Sunday as they play host to San Francisco, taking on the Dons at 3 p.m. inside the Jenny Craig Pavilion.
