San Diego Takes Down the San Francisco Dons 57-56
By Mary Harvill
San Diego’s Chris Anderson stripped the ball from Matt Glover in the last seconds of the game to give the Toreros a 1 point victory over USF in War Memorial Thursday, January 1, 2015. USF came in hot but allowed this very close game to be literally stripped out of their hands, ending the Dons 10 game winning streak playing against San Diego at home.
The game was a classic grinder. Throughout, the Toreros never quit, even with Johnny Dee, normally an 18 points per game scorer held to 4 points total for the entire game. Duda Sanadze, Jito Kok, Vasa Pusica, Brandon Perry, Chris Sarbaugh and Marcus Harris all tallied points in San Diego’s favor though none of the San Diego players finished the game with more than single digit point totals. This demonstrates the value of having a team deep with talent so that fresh players are in rotation and on the floor at all times without losing ground. San Diego Coach Bill Grier acknowledged that “without the bench, we would have been in trouble.”
Mark Tollefsen and Matt Glover led the Dons in scoring with 14 points and 11 points. Kruize Pinkins did not have another great game, amassing fouls and only capturing 7 points. Chris Adams also had 7 points. USF also went deep into its roster, seemingly emptying its bench to match San Diego’s fresh players to keep the momentum going in this very physical and mentally challenging game. The USF bench was less effective than the USD bench in keeping the momentum going for their team. The flurry of timeouts called in the last minute of the game would be enough to drain any player at the end of a long grinder like this contest was.
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Johnny Dee will have to wait for the next game to attempt to break the USD career scoring record. After the USF game, he remains 3 points shy of the record. He will have another chance to gain those 3 points in the USD vs. Santa Clara game on Saturday, January 3, 2014.
USF will have to quickly rebound from tonight’s loss to be up to the challenge that BYU presents when the Cougars arrive in San Francisco for the game Saturday night.