Toreros earn stunning comeback win versus USF

USD recovers from a 14-point deficit for impressive victory against second-place Dons

Anderson Haigler / Sports Editor / The USD Vista

The Toreros’ first half against the University of San Francisco (USF) (17-4, 5-1 WCC) last Saturday wasn’t pretty. The latest in a handful of lethargic opening periods for the University of San Diego this season saw them miss nine of their first 10 three-point attempts, and trail by an 11-point, 32-21 deficit at halftime. It was an ugly start for the Toreros. So ugly, in fact, that their normally mild-mannered head coach Sam Scholl lost his cool when he joined his team in the Jenny Craig Pavilion home locker room at the half.

“I ran into the locker room, and I believe I kicked the wall,” Scholl said. “And I just challenged them to be who they are, to be the talented, high-character fighters, basketball players, and teammates that they are. And to trust their reps. They’ve put in so many reps, to just trust that. I thought that we were just trying to think too much. I challenged them to be who they are, and they really responded.”

When Scholl’s squad took the floor for the second half of play, they certainly appeared to respond, and played with a renewed sense of resolve, more like a team that is 10-1 at home than a team that got off to similarly woeful starts against Santa Clara and Saint Mary’s. What ensued was an impressive, 67-63 comeback victory from a deficit that was as large as 14 at one point, earning the Toreros a meaningful win against one of the West Coast Conference (WCC)’s best.

What preceded Scholl’s passionate outburst, though, was a first half that was perhaps just as unlucky as it was poorly played. Playing without starting guard Olin Carter III, who missed his fourth consecutive game with an abdominal injury, the Toreros got plenty of solid, open looks from the field, but shot after shot clanked off of the front and back of the rim, providing plenty of easy rebounds for the Dons’ defense. In the midst of the Toreros’ beleaguered offensive efforts, however, was a scrappy effort on defense. USD may have allowed USF to extend their lead to a sizable margin at times, but the game never appeared out of reach for the Toreros; they managed to do just enough to keep themselves within striking distance at the half. Though he seemed displeased with his team’s early offensive efforts, Scholl stated that he was happy with his team’s resilience on defense in the game’s opening frame.

“I give so much credit to our guys for making enough plays to stay around, especially defensive plays, and not let that be a 17-or 18-point lead going into halftime,” Scholl said.

Redshirt senior guard Isaiah Wright, who scored 17 points in the game, spoke about his team’s performance early on.

“I thought that obviously in the first half we started out slow,” Wright said. “We had to adjust at halftime to figure out what we needed to do, and I thought we did a really good job with coming back in the second half and executing what we had tried to do at the start of the game.”

According to senior forward Isaiah Pineiro, part of the the Toreros’ halftime adjustments may have had to do with some extra motivation from their coach.

“We’ve seen (Coach Scholl) rise up a little, but when he does, we know he means business, and we do pay attention more,” Pineiro said. “I was personally challenged just to compete on both sides of the ball more. Be more aggressive on offense, more aggressive on defense. I was playing too tentatively. We all stepped up to the challenge.”

Wright weighed in on his coach’s halftime message.

“I thought he had some good stuff to say at halftime, and I thought we took it well,” Wright said.

Slowly but surely, the Toreros chipped away at the Dons’ lead in the second half, cutting it to two points on a Finn Sullivan layup before Pineiro tied the score at 40 with 9:42 to play in the game. Seconds later, a pair of free throws from forward Yauhen Massalski put the Toreros on top 42-40. For the first time since the 6’10” sophomore gave USD a 2-0 advantage on their first shot of the game, USD had a lead. The Toreros’ late-game surge did not stop there, though. Propelled by a flurry of scoring from both Pineiro and Wright, who combined for 28 of USD’s 46 second-half points, the Toreros battled with the Dons down the stretch, expanding their lead to as large as 10 points before USF mounted a last minute comeback of their own. As the seconds ticked off the clock, the score drew closer, and the Toreros’ largest home crowd of the season —which marked more than 2,800 fans — grew louder and louder in support of their team. Pineiro and his teammates seemed to embrace the moment, urging their fans to rise to their feet as they exchanged blows with the Dons. A crucial part of the Toreros’ second-half resurgence was vastly improved defense. Central to this staunch effort on defense was Wright, who played in all 40 minutes of the game. He described his impressive defensive performance guarding the speedy Frankie Ferrari and the rest of a USF team that came into the matchup averaging 76.9 points per game.

“I couldn’t answer how (I did it), but I mean, that’s my job,” Wright said. “For my team I need to do what I need to do, guard whoever I need to guard, and do that to the best of my abilities. I try to help my team the best I can when it comes to that situation.”

In a game that featured four lead changes and five ties, it was only fitting that the contest came down to its final seconds. After seeing their healthy six-point lead cut in half in the game’s final 40 seconds, the Toreros were forced to hang on for dear life as a pesky Dons team refused to give up, fouling USD and forcing turnovers until the bitter end. In the end, however, USD took advantage of their free throw chances, with a successful Joey Calcaterra free throw with one second remaining officially putting the game out of reach. When the final buzzer sounded after the redshirt first year’s shot swished through the net, the Toreros were 67-63 victors, and owners of a stunning comeback win against a second-place USF team that was 5-1 in WCC play with their lone loss coming to national powerhouse Gonzaga University. Equally as striking as the magnitude of USD’s win was the Toreros’ second half side of the stat sheet. USD shot 62 percent in the second half on their way to outscoring the Dons 46-31 in final period. Perhaps more importantly, they out rebounded the Dons 22-12 and held them to 34 percent shooting. Pineiro spoke about his team’s remarkable comeback after the game.

“(The difference was) defense and rebounding,” Pineiro said. “In the first half we were 38 percent (rebounding percentage), and in the second half we were 51 percent. That’s a big change, and our goal is to be above 50 percent, that puts us in a good spot. We had to just keep rebounding and limit their second chance points. In the first half I think out of their first 20 points, six or eight of them were second chance points, so that’s a lot of their offense right there. Rebounding leads to transition which leads to easy buckets and gets our offense going. It all starts there.”

Though the Toreros were able to pull off the win in the face of their slow start, Scholl stated that his team must improve in the first half of games if they are to succeed moving forward.

“We’ve gotta figure out a way to be a better first half team, we have to,” Scholl said. “That’ll probably be on the minds of all of our coaches this weekend, trying to figure out anything we can do, adjustments we can make during the week. We just have a tendency to kinda seem like we wait and see what they’re gonna do instead of going in and saying, ‘No, this is what we’re gonna do.’”

The win moves the Toreros to 11-1 at home on the season. Pineiro, who notched his seventh double-double of the season in the victory, spoke about what the win meant for him and his teammates.

“It was big,” Pineiro said. “They’re a really good team and they’re having a really good season, but we protected home floor, and that was really good.”

USD is now 15-7 on the year, and 4-3 in WCC play. This Saturday they will travel to Spokane, Wash. for the first of two matchups this season against the Gonzaga University Bulldogs, who are currently ranked No. 4 in the nation. Coach Scholl said that barring a setback to the injury he suffered on Jan. 12 against Pepperdine University, he expects Olin Carter III to return to the lineup for Saturday’s game, which starts at 5 p.m. and will be televised on TheW.tv. The Toreros return home on Thursday, Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. to continue conference play against Brigham Young University.