USD, Attempting to Avoid the Cellar, Meets Santa Clara

The University of San Diego basketball team will make the first of its two visits this season to Santa Clara’s Toso Pavilion tonight for a 7:30 game against the Broncos.

USD will return to Toso March 5, as Santa Clara is scheduled to play host to the West Coast Athletic Conference postseason tournament.

Which team USD will play in the first round will be decided by how the Toreros fare in their final four WCAC games, beginning tonight. USD is seventh in the eight-team conference race with a 2-8 record, 10-13 overall. Santa Clara, which has lost three straight, is fourth in the WCAC at 6-4, 15-8 overall.

USD is one game ahead of last-place Portland and one game behind sixth-place Gonzaga. A last-place finish means USD probably would have to open tournament play against Loyola Marymount (11-0, 21-3), which has all but clinched the regular-season championship.

Santa Clara defeated USD, 56-54, last month in San Diego when forward Mitch Burley hit six three-pointers and scored a career-high 24 points. Burley comes into tonight’s game averaging 11.7 points per game.

USD has won two of six since it last faced Santa Clara, and senior forward Marty Munn has been a big reason. Munn scored 24 points in USD’s victory at St. Mary’s and had 16 in the Toreros’ victory over Portland last Thursday.