Toreros taken down in the first round

USD men’s basketball loses in first round of WCC Tournament to USF

Maria Watters / Asst. Sports Editor / The USD Vista

The University of San Diego’s men’s basketball team squared off against the University of San Francisco Dons in the first round of the 2021 West Coast Conference Tournament on Thursday, March 4. 

The Dons dominated the first round contest from start to finish. USF outscored USD 30-17 in the first half, and their impermeable defense prevented the Toreros from making a dent in their daunting lead. While the Toreros managed to double their first-half scoring, racking up 34 points in the second half, the Dons continued to build their lead. In the end, USF defeated USD 67-51. 

The 2020-21 season for USD’s men’s basketball team has been a struggle on every level. On the court, the Toreros had much room for improvement after finishing 9-23 last season. Just two seasons ago, USD was a force in the WCC, finishing 21-15 with a deep postseason run in the WCC Tournament as well as a National Invitation Tournament (NIT) berth for the first time in program history. The team was unable to build on that momentum last season after graduating multiple starters, and it seemed much work was needed in order to return to the NIT. 

The Toreros didn’t fare much better this season, despite retaining most of their starters, as well as acquiring promising forward redshirt senior Josh Parrish via a transfer from Rice University. Their disappointing 3-10 finish during the regular season can be at least partially attributed to their inability to practice and play games, due to three COVID-19-induced pauses, each of which lasted two weeks. The Toreros were only able to play 13 of their 23 scheduled regular season games. 

The impact of the difficult season followed the Toreros into the tournament.

“This year, in general, has just been a year full of ups and downs, full of random turns to the point where we couldn’t even practice as a team for an extended period of time,” Parrish said. “When you can’t practice you can’t really get together, you can’t really get that chemistry as a unit. It’s kind of tough to come out here and perform to the best of our abilities.”

But the WCC Tournament presented a good opportunity for USD to close out the season on a high note as they were set to face a struggling Dons team. USF entered the tournament with an 11-13 record and riding a 6-game losing streak. But despite their recent lack of success, the Dons had played 11 more regular season games than the Toreros. Either way, Thursday’s contest had all the makings for a highly competitive opening to the 2021 WCC Tournament. 

USF drew first blood after the Dons’ junior forward Dzmitry Ryuny sank a three pointer following an offensive rebound, putting them up 3-0 over the Toreros. The Dons kept USD scoreless for the first three minutes of play, while building a solid seven-point lead. 

The Toreros scored their first basket after redshirt junior center Vladimir Pinchuk rebounded a missed field goal by his teammate, redshirt junior forward Jared Rodriguez and scored off of a layup, taking their first step toward closing the gap. USD continued to chip away at the USF lead by going on a 5-point run, nearly overtaking the Dons at 7-8. 

But the Dons responded with a scoring run of their own, knocking down six unanswered points in less than a minute. The Toreros were able to end the USF run at 9-14 with a layup from sophomore Yavus Gultekin, but failed to prevent the Dons from absolutely dominating the remaining 12 minutes of the half. USF proceeded to score twice as many baskets as USD for the rest of the half, leaving the court with a 13-point lead at 30-17. 

The Toreros had a significant hill to climb in the second half if they were to have any chance of defeating the Dons. USD converted a mere seven of their 27 attempted field goals and only one of their nine attempted three pointers in the first half. USF was far more productive on the scoring end, converting 43% of their field goals and 23% of their three point shots. 

USD took the court for the second half with a daunting challenge before them. Down 13 points, the Toreros would have to play some of their best basketball in the next twenty minutes in order to have a chance at winning. 

The first minute of the second half ticked by without a basket from either team, and then the game erupted into a shooting match. The two teams scored seven baskets in the next minute of play, starting with a layup from USF’s redshirt junior guard Khalil Shabazz. USD responded with a layup of their own by junior guard Finn Sullivan. Both teams traded blows, but the Dons continued to outscore the Toreros, growing their lead to 16 at 21-37. 

The Toreros were unable to stop the bleeding, despite being much more productive around the basket. A three-pointer by Ryuny brought the USF lead to 19 points as the scoreboard showed 40-21. USD kept the Dons’ lead from increasing for the next two minutes with a free throw from redshirt junior Joey Calcaterra and a layup by senior forward Yauhen Massalski, making the score 28-45. 

But USF responded by holding the Toreros at 28 for six minutes, scoring 10 unanswered points. When the score reached 28-55, the Dons had their biggest lead of the game — 27 points. 

USD spent the remaining eight minutes of the game trying to chip away at the massive deficit that threatened to keep them from seeing the second round of the tournament. With the score at 34-58, the Toreros went on an 8-point scoring run, cutting the lead to 16 points. But USD was unable to come within 15 points of USF as time ticked away. 

The last seconds counted down to the end of the Toreros’ season as the last buzzer sounded and the scoreboard showed a final score of 67-51. Despite scoring twice as many baskets in the second half as they did in the first, USD was unable to overcome the scoring and defensive power from the Dons. 

Having defeated the Toreros, USF moved on to face Loyola Marymount University in the second round on Friday, but fell to the Lions in that game, losing 70-66. 

With their 2020-21 season concluded, the question of what will happen with Torero men’s basketball looms. Looking back at their last two seasons show that it will take some serious work to return to the level that brought them to the NIT. 

With such little practice and so few games this season, it would seem that the task of improving will be a difficult one, but Head Coach Sam Scholl is confident he has seen enough to know what needs to be done.

“The games we played serve as an evaluation tool because they were opportunities for us to compete,” Scholl said. “I have a good feel of what we have moving forward, where we need to get better, and what we need to develop.”

Despite all the questions and uncertainty surrounding the team’s future, the one thing Torero men’s basketball fans can be certain of is that its team will be hard at work this off-season, striving to be a dominant force once again come next season.