Murphy Finds His Shot in Last Game at Home, Leads USD to 75-62 Win

Pete Murphy, the University of San Diego’s senior guard, finally found his jump shot Saturday night. And he found it just in time.

Playing in his final home game, Murphy scored a season-high 23 points, mostly from long range, to lead the Toreros to a 75-62 victory over Santa Clara in front of 2,025 fans in the USD Sports Center.

Murphy, who keyed several USD wins earlier this season with his long-range shooting before slumping the last couple of weeks, regained his shooting touch against the Broncos. Once he did, the Toreros (7-4 in the West Coast Athletic Conference, 17-8 overall) were on the way to their third straight victory.

“I had a little talk with myself and I knew I had to start looking for the shot a little more,” said Murphy, who hit 7 of 10 field-goal attempts in the first half. “You play every game to win but it was nice to end my home career with a game like this.”

Since Murphy scored 18 points in a 72-70 loss to Loyola here three weeks ago, opposing defenses simply made it tougher for him to get his shot off.

“I think (7-foot center) Scott Thompson had a lot to do with Pete having such a good game,” USD Coach Hank Egan said. “Teams have been taking Pete away but Santa Clara couldn’t do that because they had to concentrate on Scott inside.”

Thompson finished with 14 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. However, the junior’s effort wasn’t enough to take attention away from USD’s graduating seniors.

Mark Bostic, a 6-4 forward, scored 14 points in his farewell effort. Bostic also did a good job defending the Broncos’ top scorer, forward Steve Kenilvort.

Kenilvort, who came into the game averaging 16.6 points per game, scored 13 points against the Toreros, but most were free throws after the outcome had been decided.

“Steve tried so hard to help us but I think he was just a shadow of his real self out there,” Santa Clara Coach Carroll Williams said. “USD did a good job on him and he was a step slow. In fact, I thought we were all a step slow.”

The Broncos (5-6, 10-15) came into Saturday’s game with a four-game win streak but they never seriously challenged USD.

With Kenilvort limited to three points in the first half, the Toreros moved to a 33-28 halftime lead. Bostic started off the second half with a slam dunk, Murphy hit two jumpers and point guard Paul Leonard scored on a three-point play to boost USD’s margin to 43-31 with 16:41 left.

Santa Clara never got closer than 9 the rest of the way as Leonard scored 12 of his 13 points after halftime.

“We knew that Santa Clara was going to be the type of team that wouldn’t quit,” Egan said. “We had to work very hard to maintain our advantage so actually I thought this was one of our better overall games.”

And it was a good one for the seniors to go out on. In the final minute, Egan inserted his two other seniors, Mario Coronado and James Knight. The four seniors and Leonard finished the game.

“Nobody likes those kids more than I do,” Egan said. “I know the crowd wanted them in there, but it’s also my job to make sure we win. I’m glad it all worked out.”