West Coast Convo
Fansided

USF Defeats Portland State 77-40

By Mary Harvill

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San Francisco – 77

Portland State – 40

The USF adjustments that were made this week after the loss against Cal Poly were a resounding success this basketball game. Returning to a more traditional point guard-led approach, the Dons soundly defeated Portland State University in the first game between the two teams. Corey Hilliard started at the point though the position was also occupied by two different freshmen, Devin Watson and Frankie Ferrari during the game.

The stat lines were great for the Dons in all areas including free throws. Hooray for USF for figuring it out and playing with good offensive timing and rhythm. By doing this, they were able to consistently drop shots.

Kruize Pinkins and Mark Tollefson led the Dons in scoring with 23 points each.  Tollefson was tops for the team in the rebounding department with 10 rebounds compared to 5 rebounds for Pinkins. A nice double double effort for Tollefson. Tim Derksen finished the evening with 10 points and 4 rebounds. Devin Watson led the single digit scorers for USF with 8 points. A good solid night for the freshman guard. The Dons shot nearly 60% from the field and collected points on 80% of their free throws a huge improvement from the game against Cal Poly where they shot 37.50% in the first half of that game.

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It was a much different story for the Portland State team who just couldn’t get it together on the floor in spite in individual strengths for several players. Shooting 38% from the field in the first half and 11% in the second half, the Vikings went through the motions but that was all. They might as well have worn “I’d rather be anywhere but playing basketball” t-shirts.  DeShaun Wiggins finished the night with 18 points, Gary Winston had 6 points after 34 minutes of showing up. Colin Spickerman led the team in rebounding with 7 rebounds. 350 pound Dorian Cason finished the night with 5 points; 3 points alone were from free throws where he made 3 out of 4. Was he on loan from the Viking football program?  Missing two of their normal top scorers and players, Coach Tyler Geving and his team have their work cut out for them if they intend to remain the number 2 team in the Big Sky Conference for the remainder of the season.

Coach Rex Walters could have been a bit more merciful towards Portland State and made wholesale substitutions from the bench much sooner in the second half than he did. No sense continuing to hammer away at your opponent when the inevitable W is in hand.

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