Toreros Defeat St. Mary’s in Tournament Warmup

After setting team records with 13 straight victories and 23 overall, the University of San Diego’s basketball team finally can get down to business.

The Toreros concluded their regular season Wednesday night by defeating St. Mary’s, 61-50, with the help of a 17-2 burst in the second half that wiped out a two-point deficit.

But the game that really matters to the Toreros will be played Saturday. USD will play host to last-place Loyola Marymount when the West Coast Athletic Conference postseason tournament gets under way. This tournament--and not USD’s regular-season championship--will determine the conference’s representative to the NCAA tournament.

So despite its most successful season ever, USD isn’t guaranteed a berth in the NCAA field. But St. Mary’s Lynn Nance is one opposing coach who thinks the Toreros should be selected, no matter what happens in the WCAC tournament.

“This win should have got them into the NCAA tournament,” Nance said. “It would be a travesty if they don’t get into (it), even if they don’t win our conference tournament. And I think it’s always tough on the team that wins the regular season to win the tournament.”

But USD Coach Hank Egan, whose team is 23-4 overall and 13-1 in the conference, said, “I don’t think we’ll lose. Someone will have to beat us. We won’t give a game away. There are teams capable of beating us.”

One of those teams may be St. Mary’s. For the first 25 minutes Wednesday night, it appeared that the Gaels (16-12, 7-7) might hand USD its second conference loss.

But five minutes into the second half, the Toreros, trailing by 29-27, went on a spree in which they scored 17 of the next 19 points.

On consecutive possessions, Danny Means hit a three-point shot, Scott Thompson made a three-point play, Mark Manor hit a three-point shot and Paul Leonard hit a field goal. USD then led by 38-29 with 11:25 remaining.

Means and Thompson then hit three-point shots in the next 1 1/2 minutes, giving USD a 44-31 lead. Thompson, a 7-foot center, has made four shots from three-point range this season.

“It’s a fun shot to take,” Thompson said. “I was wide open, and I felt comfortable.”

Early on, Thompson didn’t feel so comfortable. He scored two points in the first half as St. Mary’s sagged its defense inside. Thompson scored nine points in the second half when USD began getting the ball inside.

“Our guards finally started hitting shots,” Thompson said. “They all had three-pointers, and (St. Mary’s) had to start going outside.”

USD leads the nation in field goal percentage defense and St. Mary’s is third in scoring defense. In the first half, the teams showed why.

St. Mary’s led at half, 23-18. But the Toreros shot 72.2% in the second half, primarily from inside.

USD’s second-half surge was helped by Egan’s correction of a coaching mistake. Thinking that forward Nils Madden was in foul trouble (he wasn’t), Egan benched Madden for much of the half.

Madden said, “I usually am (in foul trouble).”

But in the second half, Madden scored 12 of his game-high 16 points. He hit three consecutive field goals late in the game, giving USD a 53-45 lead with 3:55 remaining.

The Toreros, in danger of having their winning streak ended, made a couple of second-half improvements, Egan said: They began “cleaning up” their offensive scheme and played better defense.

“I told them at halftime we didn’t play our best half of basketball,” Egan said. “St. Mary’s had a lot to do with it. They played a tough zone and controlled the tempo. I told our players if they were supposed to be champions, let’s come back and do it in the second half.”

If USD beats Loyola Marymount on Saturday, it will advance to the WCAC tournament semifinals March 6 in San Francisco.

“Whenever we go out, we know we’re going to win,” Madden said.