USD basketball sends off seniors

Toreros go 1-1 versus the University of Portland and Saint Mary’s College in final home games of season

Anderson Haigler / Sports Editor / The USD Vista

On an evening aimed at honoring their senior players, the University of San Diego men’s basketball team had a lot to celebrate before their Saturday night game. There was Isaiah Pineiro, who has averaged nearly 20 points per game this season with 13 double-doubles. Olin Carter III, who moved into fourth place in career points scored in USD history in the ensuing game. Isaiah Wright, who has played more minutes per game this season than just about anybody in the NCAA while averaging 12 points. And the sharp-shooting Tyler Williams, who has done a little bit of everything for the Toreros, with more than his fair share of big moments along the way. Together, a senior class that is large in both number and meaningful contributions. But when tasked with assessing what his veteran contingent of players have meant to both him and the program as a whole, USD men’s basketball head coach Sam Scholl kept coming back to one thing: culture.

“They’ve meant everything to us,” Scholl said. “They’ve changed the face of the program, the way the program is perceived. And what they’ve done that nobody gets to see is they’ve changed the way the locker room feels. We have a locker room now with guys that love to play, that have a passion for this game that want to be the best players and the best team that they can be. And quite frankly that feeling wasn’t there four years ago before they got here. We will forever be indebted to what they’ve done and established in our culture.”

But there’s something else that both Scholl and his senior players have frequently used to describe their performance this season. It’s a sense of not being able to put things together. An inability, at times, to set forth a complete performance in all phases of the game for the entire 40 minutes of the contest. Time and time again, they have emphasized that they feel they are close to putting it all together, that they have the talent, experience, and skills necessary to close their season on a high note. And it’s not hard to see why they are so firm in their faith in themselves. There’s been flashes of brilliance: an electric first half against now-No. 1 Gonzaga. A stunning comeback against third-place USF. And an impressive 11-4 non-conference record against as tough of a schedule as USD has seen in years. But for each of the highs, there’s been perhaps an equal low. Tough defeats include a second-half collapse to second-place Brigham Young University after leading for most of the game, as well as a similar last-second loss at Pepperdine earlier this month.

“We do have good talent, we have great character, great teammates, guys who want to play for each other,” Scholl said. “We have the tools. So now it’s just about having the consistency with the things you need to do to win basketball games.”

This past weekend, both of the aforementioned strengths and weaknesses of the Toreros were on display as they competed in their final two regular-season home games of the season. They got things started on Thursday night with a matchup against the lowly University of Portland Pilots, who came into the contest without a win this season in the West Coast Conference (WCC), as well as a 13-game losing streak. Their play, however, belied their dismal record, and gave USD as much trouble as any team has this season. 

“We talked about it before the game, probably their greatest strength was that they hadn’t won a game,” Scholl said. “So they came out and played aggressive. What do they have to lose? Another game? Credit to Coach Porter in the way they kept playing and how they presented some problems for us.”

Like Scholl said, the Pilots opened the game with an aggressive style of play, leading to a first half that saw USD trail multiple times. After an ugly turnover and foul-plagued first 10 minutes from both sides to start the game, Portland led by five. When the Toreros did eventually figure things out offensively, they did so from the perimeter, doing most of their damage from 3-point range. Carter III led the way for USD in this regard, shooting 4-6 from the field, and 2-4 for three in the first half. Pineiro chipped in with 13 first-half points of his own, but the Toreros still were unable to create any semblance of a comfortable lead over the WCC’s worst team. After trailing by a score of 29-28 with 4:05 to go in the half, a Joey Calcaterra jumper gave USD a slim, 31-28 advantage over the Pilots before two more successful jumpers from both Pineiro and first-year guard Finn Sullivan extended it to 35-30. USD would lead by the same score at the half. Pineiro, who scored a game-high 22 points, described the first half of play.

“They were making some tough shots but their defense was really good,” Pineiro said. “They slowed us down, and we weren’t in a groove offensively, but defensively we couldn’t get stops either.”

When the second half began, the Toreros’ struggles to create a significant lead continued. Their advantage dwindled down to just one point with 17 minutes remaining in the game before the Pilots took a 41-40 lead on a short jumper from sophomore guard JoJo Walker. Though USD was able to hold Portland to just 25 percent shooting from the field in the second half,   the two teams would trade the lead back and forth five more times before the Toreros finally figured things out. With under two minutes left in the game, and a narrow 54-52 lead, Tyler Williams tossed in a layup in the paint that would signal the beginning of the end for the Portland’s hopes of a WCC upset. Punctuated by a signature deep, highly contested 3-pointer from Carter III with just 40 seconds remaining that marked the last of his 16 points in the game, the Toreros went on a 9-0 scoring run to conclude the contest that stretched their lead to a game-high 11 points and secured them a 63-52 victory.

Scholl spoke about his team’s late-game offensive surge.

“We were just getting stops on one end, challenging shots, rebounding, (Portland) was getting no second efforts,” Scholl said. “And then (the Toreros) were coming down here and executing and attacking. The ball kept moving, and we found open shooters. Olin made a really big shot, and some guys stepped up and made some really big plays.” 

Saturday’s night’s matchup against the Saint Mary’s College Gaels did not fare nearly as well for USD. After the pregame celebration for the senior class concluded and the game began, the Toreros once again struggled to get their shots to fall on offense, and saw several of their layups swatted down in the paint by the Gaels’ 6-foot-10 center Jordan Ford, who finished with four blocks on the night. USD had plenty of chances to score, but was unable to convert many of their opportunities, shooting a troubling 29 percent from the field in 52 attempts. Pineiro discussed the Toreros’ offensive woes.

“Their big man was really holding down the paint,” Pineiro said. “We just couldn’t get shots. We had some open looks and they just weren’t falling.”

Senior guard Isaiah Wright, who recorded 10 points on the night, offered his take on his team’s lack of success offensively.

“(Saint Mary’s) did a good job, but we just gotta make our shots,” Wright said. “We gotta step up to the plate and make shots. I thought we had a lot of possessions that we could’ve scored on but we left it off the board and that hurt us.”

By halftime, they trailed by a score of 29-20, a sizable deficit that was prevented from  increasing by tough defense on USD’s end that saw them hold Saint Mary’s to eight points below their average total in the game.

“Overall I was pleased with our defense,” Pineiro said. “I think they had 11 offensive rebounds so that hurts, but if we cut that in half, our defensive numbers are even better. We had some undisciplined plays that led to some easy baskets but overall I think defensively we did pretty good.”

The Toreros’ troubles continued in the second period. After compensating for their lack of scoring with hard-nosed defense all first half, they appeared to grow weary on both ends of the floor in the second period. They were unable to either close the gap or find an answer for the Gaels’ crafty guard Jordan Ford, who scored a game-high 21 points behind a 7-12 night shooting in which he made five of his eight 3-point attempts. Perhaps the only positive on offense was Pineiro notching his 13th double-double of the season with 13 points and 14 rebounds.  As the game wound to a close, the Saint Mary’s lead continued to swell, ultimately dealing USD a 20-point, 66-46 loss to the second-place Gaels on Senior Night. Scholl assessed his team’s effort in their final regular-season home game.

“I thought we fought like crazy to try to dictate our defensive identity and our pillars,” Scholl said. “And I felt like we did for a long time through the challenge of not scoring on the other end — that’s hard to do, to continue to get stops when you’re not scoring. Your offense affects your defense just like your defense affects your offense.”

The defeat marks the Toreros’ fourth loss in their last seven games. It moved their record to 17-12 overall (6-8 WCC), and spoiled an otherwise special night for their graduating class. Pineiro described his and his teammates’ emotions regarding the loss.

“It sucks to play like that on Senior Night, potentially our last game here,” Pineiro said. “But it sucks like that to play in any game.”

 USD has just two regular-season games remaining: road matchups with the University of San Francisco and Brigham Young University. If they are to take any sort of positive momentum into the WCC Tournament early next month, they will need to quickly start winning. Though he is keenly aware that time is running out for the Toreros to turn things around, Wright said that he is not worried about his team down the stretch.

“It’s frustrating, all of us are disappointed,” Wright said. “But we’ve got a lot of basketball left. We can’t just get down on this one game cause it’s our last home game. This team can turn around in an instant, we can click just like that. We just gotta keep on working and keep on believing in one another. I’m not too worried about where we’re at right now, I’m really not. We’re gonna figure out a way.”

Scholl agreed with Wright’s sentiment.

“I just told the guys — our coaching staff chooses nothing else other than to believe that if this season is a drama, these are like the evil chapters,” Scholl said. ”We choose to believe nothing else other that this is going to be a storybook ending. That’s how we’re going to move forward… we’re gonna have a really special finish to the year.”

The Toreros’ next game is against  USF in San Francisco on Thursday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m.

 It will be streamed online on theW.tv and broadcast on the 1090 AM app.